Tiberium: The Fires of Terra
by bluerockmen
Summary: War has just be declared after a terrorist attack wiped out the leaders of the United Nations between the Earth Alliances and PLANT but the first shot has yet to be fired. So what will happen when suddenly another UN organization from another reality arrives unforeseen. Will the ideals of the UN hold true or will there be nothing but war in the future.
1. Chapter 1

**This version of the chapter has been beta read by Hazimat. thanks! :D**

Tiberium: The Fires of Terra

Location: Earth, Southern Italy, the town of Isola di Capo Rizzuto

February 1st, AD 2070/CE 70, 12:45 pm  
Earth Broadcasting Network (EBN) News Helicopter 11, ten minutes after the event.

"This is Ruth Warden reporting live from Italy, where the town of Isola di Capo Rizzuto was replaced with an enormous tower, dark clouds, and a landscape scattered with green crystals," Warden said as the news helicopter was buffeted on all side by increasingly heavy winds which threaten to rip the doors off.

"As you can see, the conditions here are very extreme and there is no-"

The pilot mentally cursed repeatedly as he fought to keep his craft stable and in the air as a particularly savage gust slammed into the small craft, sending the experienced reporter stumbling.

"What the hell was that?!"

"What the hell do you think it is, Sherlock, it's the bloody wind! "The pilot shot back, "I can't keep us in the air, I'm going to try and land us so hold on tight assholes."

"Fuck you" was what Warden would have liked to say but instead he turned to the camera which was bouncing all over the place like the rest of the copter despite the best efforts of John Woods, his long-time camera man.

As the two of them were already seated and belted in, Warden leaned to Woods "Are we getting anything through?"

The other man barely had enough time to shake his head before they were all thrown against their own seat belts and then slammed into their seats.

"Shit I'm bringing us down now! Pray to whatever gods you want and brace for impact!"

Finally their fortunes ran out as the heavy winds smashed into the helicopter, forcing it closer to the ground. The pilot attempted to gain attitude but the rotors failed to grip the air. It was then that the pilot accepted that his bird was going only one way in this weather, down.

With that in mind, the pilot guided his craft into the green landscape below, doing his best to find the nearest clearing. Locating one, he wrestled his copter around by sheer force of will and brought his craft in for a landing as heavy winds continue to batter the craft. It wasn't long before the news copter met the unyielding ground, carving a wake of shredded crystal and metal while throwing its passengers around like rag dolls.

Throughout this, interestingly enough the camera continued to record the final moments of the crew as they were thrown and shaken inside out (around?) until it ceased recording. As the final despairing shrieks of tortured metal faded away, there was no movement from within the partially-crushed aircraft.

It was ten minutes later that the wreckage of the helicopter was finally discovered by troops of the Rapid Assault and Intercept Deployment (RAID) 2th division under the command of Forward Battle Commander (FBC) Aaron Vega.

Bravo team was dispatched to check if there were any survivors when the aircraft was spotted going down, now their dropship hovered above the crash site with the rear ramp open, allowing Captain Zu and his men to jump. As they approached the ground, their armor's sensors fired the inbuilt jet packs, slowing their descent, allowing them to touch down softly.

All were experienced soldiers and had performed missions like this before, so there was no need for words between them as they surveyed the wreckage.

The team medic, Jaya Kumari, made his way immediately into the crashed copter with the captain taking up position just outside the downed craft behind him while the rest of the team took up positions(or formed a perimeter, one is enough) around the crashed craft to keep an eye out for any signs of uninvited guests.

"Captain, we need to move quickly," yelled Jaya, as he carried a survivor out of the wrecked aircraft, "looks like the guy got Tib poisoning!"

A single glance was enough to see the need to hurry as the man was showing the first sign of Tiberium infection which meant he was going to end up as a mutant or dead unless they acted soon.

"Delta Nine, this is Bravo, drop a Tiberium Containment Pod, we have a survivor."

"Bravo, Delta Nine here, roger, inbound five."

It wasn't long before the pod was dropped by the dropship. Not wasting any time, Captain Zu helped Kumari with moving the survivor into the pod and then closed it, placing the man in stasis. They then attached synthetic spider silk cables to the pod before finally ordering the dropship to begin pulling it in.

"Command, this is Bravo we have found the downed aircraft, one survivor and two fatalities."

"Bravo, this is Command, gather everything and RTB."

"Roger, Command, gathering everything and returning" he answered and cut the communication link.

"Command just ordered us to gather everything and RTB, so get moving people!" Captain Zu said "Vahlen, Kumari, pick that wreckage apart, Branford, Shepard, Pita, and Stevenson stay on over watch for any threats."

"Max, I hope you remember what they taught you in engineering school, because I want the black box of this antique found. Move it!" Captain Zu ordered, looking at the armored figure of the engineer.

"Can't be harder to find then a bloody Nod base sir," the rumbling voice of the hulking engineer chuckled.

The engineer made his way to the front of the wrecked craft and carefully began cutting through the thin aluminum skin so that he could get a look inside. After a little more pulling and cutting through the control panels and the remains of the cockpit, Max found what he was looking for.

"Ah, here it is."

"Erm, Sir, I think I found something not too sure what it is though…" The youthful voice of Lt Vahlen washed over the net as she crawled under a particularly large piece of wreckage.

"Kumari, can you move over and see what is it from the other side?" Captain Zu asked as the young soldier made his way to the other side and bent down to see what it was."

"It appears to be some sort of camera/transmitter combo; it seems to have taken a beating." Kumari said, struggling to help Vahlen get a hold of it.

"Good take it and anything else of interest that you may find."

"On it" Max answered, as he began ripping the wreck apart after Vahlen and Kumari crawled out from under it. In 20 minutes the wreck was in pieces and everything that looked remotely interesting was gathered together in a small pile away from the remains of the copter.

"Delta Nine, we're ready to RTB." Captain Zu said

"Bravo, this is Delta Nine lowing right now." Delta answered, as the dropship slowly decreased its attitude until it was within easy reach of Bravo jets packs.

"Max and Kumari grab the gear and board first; we'll follow after you guys had finished." Captain Zu said as he scanned the surrounding landscape for any threat until the sound of jet packs firing could be heard. "Alright everyone, move it!" Captain Zu shouted, the rest of Bravo fell back one by one, each covering the other until only Zu remained.

The captain took one last look, his eyes scanning the environment one final time before turning, following his man and initiated his jet pack, soaring skywards to the waiting dropship.

00

Earth, Orb Union, Olofat  
February 1st, AD 2070/CE 70, 1:00 pm (standard time)

Uzumi Nara Athha, sometime known as the "the Lion of Orb" sat slumped in his darkened office nursing a shot of his favorite whisky. It wouldn't surprise him if it turned out that PLANT or the Alliance was responsible for the attack on the UN on the moon. The fires of war had been burning brighter for the few past decades, with the hate between naturals and coordinators growing ever so slowly until it finally reached this point.

The United Nations was no more and war had been declared, now all that remained was a trigger to begin the madness, Athha thought, staring blankly at his favorite show on the screen before him.

He was spontaneously returned to reality, as the program was interrupted by an unexpected news announcement.

"We're sorry to interrupt your daily program for this important news update, the Pentagon just announced that the alliance is going into Defcon two," said the female reporter. "All attempts to question the government directly for any more information have thus far proven unsuccessful."

So it finally begins, the chief representative of ORB sighed morosely, war.

"Currently the government is advising for people in the affected areas head to the nearest shelter until the situation has been resolved. That's all the information we have available for right now, stay tuned to EBN for the latest news from the solar system."

Maybe this is god's judgment for denying our children a peaceful future, he mused sadly gazing at a framed photo of a blonde girl playing with him. No matter, the world can burn itself in hate but Orb will not be drawn into this pointless war. He will not allow it.

"This is Ava Lovestrong, reporting for EBN from Washington D-"

*Click*

He'd already developed contingency plans with the military, plans to guide his nation in the event of war between the Alliance and PLANT. Now there was nothing else he could do but wait and let them do their job. So it was a surprise when his office phone started ringing.

He picked up the phone without delay and slowly turned pale as he listened to the report.

"Order the military into full combat alert and get the civilians into the shelters immediately but don't do anything more without my permission. I'm heading down right now, see you soon General."

The phone was returned to its resting place and the chief rushed out of his office.

00

Earth, Outside Threshold 19, GDI Mobius Station, Communication Center  
February 1st, AD 2070/CE 70, 1:40 pm

"Philadelphia, this is Mobius, Base Commander Tama and Forward Battle Commander Vega reporting as ordered." Vega said, into the microphone.

"Mobius this is Philadelphia, received. Gentlemen, we have a situation." he recognized the voice of the Commander-in-Chief of GDI armed forces; Verena McNeil.

"Look, this sound ridiculous but G-Tech tells me we've been moved to another reality. Our primary objectives if that is true are to consolidate our position and make sure that Tiberium stays contained, we can't afford to ruin another world."

Mobius station was built at the end of the Third Tiberium War to study the tower and understand the technology behind it but without much success. The only thing that they had been able to determine was that the tower was phase into another dimension preventing anyone from damaging or even touching it.

So it was no surprise that the technology within the station was slightly out of data, namely the fact that it was forced to make do with an older EVA unit which relied on the station's communication systems.

"Scans of Earth reveal the only Tiberium present is what we have under our control in the Blue Zones and in the area around the tower. And we're going to keep it that way," McNeil said, as static interrupted the transmission momentarily. "Commanders, I need you to move quickly and begin deploying sonic emitters and repulsor fields to stop the growth of Tiberium on the land side. In addition, we haven't made contact with any of the locals yet so I'm authorizing you to talk to them in Italy about the local situation for now."

"Yes, ma'am," Vega answered "what about the Mediterranean side of the tower, Ma'am?"

"ZOCOM will take care of that" McNeil said "Commander Tama , they will be arriving soon so begin construction of transports as soon as possible and ensure that any crafts you have is also available for ZOCOM use. We need to move quickly to contain the situation."

"Yes, ma'am," Tama answered.

"By the way, Commander, we have some G-330X habitat modules available if you need them, use whatever means possible to keep the civilians safe. The 8th and 9th RAID divisions and a Crawler are also available for deployment, they will be under your control, Commander Vega," McNeil sighed "Sorry, I would've sent more troops but I don't want to cause any hostilities to break out. It seems that whatever reality we're in, they've clearly been in space for a while judging by the looks of things up here. Any questions?"

"None, ma'am"

McNeil paused for a moment before finally wishing the Commanders good luck as the communication link was cut, leaving Vega and the base commander alone in the communication center. "I'll get moving and we'll talk over the coms" he said with a nod at the base commander before leaving.

As he left the Command Center, the alarm systems begin sounding throughout the base.

"This is an emergency situation, repeat, all hands to action stations." the speakers begin as he made his way to the main underground hangar which was built to handle the cargo transports too large to land on the helipad on top of the research station.

The hanger, like all entrances was equipped with a decontamination chamber which he used before entering a side elevator taking him topside to the waiting Blackfish Dropship. Thankfully, the trip didn't take long.

Vega covered the distance to the dropship swiftly and didn't bother taking a seat as he knew the dropship's seek aerodynamic frame would get him to his destination quickly rendering seating a moot point. Learning against the airframe, he brought up a holographic map of the area on his HUD, following that he made a call to Commander Tama.

"How's the situation developing on your end?" Vega asked the base commander, as he studied the holographic map of southern Italy, particularly the towns and cities around Isola di Capo Rizzuto. The closest city was Crotone to the north, and then there was a town to the north east and another to the east on the coast. In-between the three were mountains and farmland that wasn't going to be useable any time soon.

At least Nod didn't come through with them, he thought, making up his mind on where he'll be deploying the 8th and 9th division.

"As well as can be expected under the circumstances, not good," Tama said, as static interrupted the link temporary. "We're making the transports as fast as possible but we're a research station not a military base" Tama sighed, "but I have good news, ZOCOM will be deploying into the surrounding area around the station soon."

"Good" Vega answered with relief in his voice.

"Where will you be deploying your troops too?" Tama asked.

"I'm heading to the city of Crotone according to the data package from the Philadelphia," Vega said. The data package in question was downloaded by EVA while he was talking with the CIC back at the station. "The 8th will be deploying to the town of Cutro, to the north-west, and the 9th will be deploying to another city known as Steccato di Cutro to the west."

"What about the Crawler?" Tama asked, as he was interrupted by static again.

"Hold it in reserve in case until I need it," Vega said over the static filled com link "hopeful the situation doesn't go to hell but if it does I'll also need some of the Blackfish transports to move my own troops from the station to here."

"I'll see what I can do," Tama said as once more the link was interrupted by static, only this time it lasted longer "shit, it looks like we got ourselves a Ion storm developing here. So you had better move and make this quick, when the storm starts communications will be screwed."

"Then in that case, we'll need the Crawler, it'll have one of the newer EVA units on board. We can use that to communicate if a storm does happen." Vega said. He was about to cut the com link when a thought occurred to him. One that should have occurred to him sooner, there was no guarantee that there was a GDI in this reality then…

"We could say that we're with the United Nations, they're bound to have one in this reality"

"Or maybe we should just stay with GDI Vega; the UN is history, old history at that."

"Screw it, you're right" he said "I'm just overthinking things, Bamboo out."

"Commander, we're here" he heard the pilot voice over the dropship speakers. He made his way to the rear and activated the intercoms. "Make it a hot drop, Mobius just informed me that we got a possible Ion storm developing."

"Shit, will do" the pilot answered.

Releasing the intercom, Vega retrieved his GD-10A from the arms locker before looking out over the lowering ramp. As the endless landscape of purplish-blue clouds and blue-green crystal that quickly gave way to green fields, and then the drab gray of urban sprawl, he slowly counted to three and jumped.

00

The city was a mass, the weather was getting worst, and its inhabitants were panicking in their shelters unsure of what was happening to the world outside. And in the province capital building a man sat subdued behind his desk, silently praying for anyone to help his people. As the governor, it was his responsibility to ensure the safety of the people of this province but he can only sit there helplessly watching the growing storm engulf his province. It was a nightmare, and to think the madness had started less than an hour ago…

All attempts to contact the rest of his province and the surrounding towns failed. Radio, satellites, digital TV and any other wireless communication system didn't work. The only method that seems to be working was the landline which connected the city to the one way National Emergency Land Network (NFLN).

The network was designed to ensure that Rome had the capability to warn each portion of the nation in case of war. The idea was to link Rome with the provinces capitals with landlines since they wouldn't be interrupted by fighting in orbit. The only problem the program was relatively new and the line to the city was one of the few which had been completed. That was the reason he'd set up his own Emergency Broadcast System for his province allowing his government to relay any warning it received.

He'd been forewarned by a friend in the national government about the NFLN project which allowed him to get a head start with his own program and the Emergency Broadcast System, but now that there was a crisis, the system wasn't functioning at all despite his minister's assurance. Tired of them and their worthless bubbling he'd dismissed them and now Governor Carlos Salvatore sat defeated in his office with two security guards, silently dammed himself for his failure.

He turned his head away from the wooden desk to glare out the window at the tower in the distance. He might have failed the rest of his province but at least the city's inhabitants was safe in the shelters, whether their own or those built by the city. He'd made sure of it by sending his own people to do so.

The latest message that came through the NFLN was a notice that the Federation and the Alliance were at Defcon 2. He assumed that was in reaction to the tower in the distance which was responsible for this crisis but even so, that wasn't his main concern, as he once more returned to staring down at his wooden desk.

The people of this province had entrusted themselves to his care and now this...the table groaned as he mentally raged against his helplessness in the face of this calamity. He shouldn't be sitting here doing nothing he should be out there doing his job!

He had lost track of time as he stared dully at the wooden desk when suddenly he was interrupted by one of his bodyguards whispering into his ears.

"Chief says that there is someone at the front door who claims to know what is happening, should we remove him?"

"No, let him in," he said, without a thought. The wait wasn't long as the room was on the second floor of the province capital building. The door finally opened and the Chief of Security Jose Homes entered followed by an armored figure with a rifle slung on his back.

He sweated blood and tears in the streets to come this far so that one day he could work for the betterment of everyone and now he was nothing more than a powerless little man forced to physically send his own people to warn the surrounding cities and towns. This was the 21th century, not the dark ages, this shouldn't be occurring.

"What the hell is happening?" he asked, doing the best to keep his own voice calm.

"Begin evacuating the civilian population in the city and the surrounding region, we don't have time." the armored figure said.

"There's no point, the city's population is in their shelters and I've already send out my own people to warn the surrounding cities and towns," he stated in a toneless voice "You know with communications down doing anything more is pointless. So who on Earth are you and what information do you have that could possible help me beside the obvious?" he said, his voice flaring with rage.

It pissed him off to hear this person come in to tell to do something that he'd already done. Rage bubbled within him to the point that he felt his hands harden into fists of iron, ready to punch that upstart in the face, before fading away when he finally regained control of himself.

"Forward Battle Commander Aaron Vega of the Global Defense Initiative Rapid Assault and Intercept Deployment, 2nd Division," Vega said, as the helmet cameras zoomed into to study the governor. "The area around the tower is a Red Zone; an area that is hostile to carbon based lifeforms. It is also under our jurisdiction."

"I've never heard of this Global Defense Initiative or Rapid Assault and Intercept Deployment" he said, his tone almost mocking. "But with that tower" he said, as he turned to once more to glare impotently at the offending structure. "I'm willing to believe you. For now."

"The only link to the outside world I have is the one way National Emergency Land Network, nothing else" he continued, small trace of his rage leaking through.

"I have a solution but I'll need your permission to deploy a RAID Crawler from orbit" Vega said. "It'll be equipped with the communication gear to break through the ion saturated atmosphere."

"Permission given," Carlos said offhandedly. His chief briefly protested but stopped when he saw the look on the governor's face. "I've never heard of this Global Defense Initiative but neither did that tower exists an hour ago. Whatever happened, clearly this Initiative came with the tower judging by the presence of the Commander here," he said, taking in the strange weapon and armor Commander Vega was wearing. "So it's rational to think that they know more about the situation then we. Isn't it?"

"Governor, I'll need you to come with me to the Crawler when it arrives," the armored figure said "And I have troops standing by ready to help but I'll need your help and permission to deploy them without causing any problems in the surrounding areas."

"Done, I'll take any additional help you can give and I'll include it in my message to the province."

He was about to speak again when suddenly, a massive explosion-like boom echoed through the air.

"I assume that was the Crawler?" he said, as he shook his head to clear it. A nod from the armored man answered his question.

"So, how long until the transports arrive?"

"Five minutes."

"Time enough for a few questions. What on Earth is this "Global Defense Initiative" and what is the hell is that tower?" he gritted out.

"GDI was created by the United Nations as it formalized military to combat global terrorism in 1995" was the surprising answer.

"Wha- never mind, and this "Crawler"?" he asked again, taking in what had been said by the commander. The United Nations was dissolved a month ago by the Atlantic Federation and replaced with the Earth Alliance. If he remembered right, one of the reasons given was that the UN lacked the muscle need to deal with the current state of the world.

"A Crawler is a mobile base of operations with full command and control function" Vega said, "Its communication systems is much more advanced compared to anything you or I have access to right now but we need to move quickly, there's a storm heading our way."

Carlos didn't say anything more because he didn't have anything else to add, his mind was presently jumping in joy now that he finally was going to get a means of communicating with the rest of the province.

"The Roughrider has arrived." the armored figure informed them.

"Then lead the way Commander Vega" the governor said with a nod as he stood up. If following the commander meant giving him a method of upholding his responsibility to the people of his province, then he will take it. They came first.

00

A short while later, Governor Salvatore was sitting in the cramped room which was the crawler's main command hub. It basically consists of two rows of desks filled with computers screens and input terminals.

The first row of terminals was built into the wall, with the second not far behind, built into the opposite wall. Currently, Commander Vega sat at one of the terminals, silently cursing the fate which had forced him to cramp Governor Salvatore, his security detail and a team of 6 engineers from both sides into this tiny, cramped room.

Meanwhile the Chief of Security for the governor, Jose Homes, was leaning against the wall watching an engineer who worked on the Emergency Broadcast System argue the finer point of some engineering discipline with his GDI counterpart. They had been working together for the last hour to jury rig the Crawler communication system to be able to broadcast on the same channel as the EBS and therefore, allow the governor to get the message out to his people.

Off to one side, Governor Carlos was replaying the events of the past hour in his head. He had been rather surprised when they arrived at the Crawler; instead of an armored vehicle of some sort he'd been expecting, he'd been confronted with a massive building. Now he was trying to figure how on Earth GDI was able to erect such a large structure on short notice.

"Sir, everything is ready to go." GDI engineer Mark Johnson announced, giving his superiors a salute before leaving.

"Whenever you're ready governor" Vega gestured towards the microphone.

"This is Governor Carlos Salvatore to all civilians and government officials of the province of Crotone. As of this moment the province is in a state of martial law, please go to your nearest shelter and stay there until troops arrive to help with evacuation to a safer location. Please do not panic. The national and federal government is now at Defcon 2 so help will be on the way." Salvatore paused, looking around the command hub. "In addition, do not, repeat, do not fire on troops who have identified themself as belonging to the United Nations Global Defense Initiative. They will be helping with the evacuation effort, I repeat do not fire on United Nations Global Defense Initiative troops, they will be helping with the evacuation. Thank for your time and know that we all pray for your safety."

Message recorded, the governor slumped into his seat as the artificial intelligence known as EVA prepared to broadcast it over the crawler's communication systems.

"Thank you, governor" Vega nodded. "EVA, begin deployment of the 8th and 9th division to their assigned location with orders to begin evacuation of the local population if possible. Also have them place down G-330X habitat modules to provide additional shelter where needed."

"Acknowledged, commander" Eva answered through Vega's helmet speakers, "Orders from above is to make contact with the federal government as soon as possible and begun talks to secure the area around the tower in order to ensure we have a means of contacting the nations of this reality."

"Affirmative Eva" Vega turned to face the governor. "Sir, if you don't mind I was hoping we could begin negotiations with the federal government, we need to begin talks immediately about the situation here as soon as possible before it gets out of hand."

Salvatore paused for a moment, as he thought about the situation and everything that had happened so far. In the end, he decided that he had a favor to return. Beside he can't have his own government fighting the only people who know what is happening in his province.

"Governor…?" Vega asked.

"Not a problem but it may take a bit of work." Salvatore said.

"I can wait." Vega replied, looking down at the console, "EVA, please help the governor with establishing contact with the federal government."

"Affirmative, commander" The cool voice of the AI echoed from all around the room as the screen before the governor lit up with lines of data. "Governor, I would need you to…"

"Thank you commander" Salvatore said, turning to the desk in front of him as his engineer peered over his shoulder, unsure of what to do and who this EVA was.

"EVA, what's the current status of the 8th, 9th, and the city?" Vega asked the AI.

"Drones deployed to the city show the only civilians above ground are those in the main government buildings." the AI said before pausing for a moment as new data was received. "Commander, the GDS Izanagi has arrived and is currently deploying the 8th and 9th RAID divisions to their assigned location."

"Are they having any trouble?" Vega asked.

"None so far, Commander, however the Izanagi report sighting what appears to be local forces moving in. The commander of the Izanagi is requesting permission to make contact with them once they get closer." Eva said.

"Permission given, Eva, tell them to be careful" Vega said. "Now, what's the latest update on the weather?"

"A storm is unlikely to occur within the 24 hours. Nonetheless the heavy winds will have no doubt carried Tiberium particles into the surrounding regions. Most worrying is the Mediterranean Sea and Tiberium growth undersea." Eva said bringing up a holographic map of the Mediterranean Sea on the projector on the right side of the room. "Until we reclaim the Red Zone around the tower from Tiberium, the surrounding regions will remain susceptible to Tiberium infection."

He watched as EVA highlighted the area around the tower in red, most of the Mediterranean, the Middles East, the Northern Coast of Africa, and the Southern Coast of Europe in yellow, with the regions further beyond colored in blue.

"Thank you, Eva" Vega said, turning away from the holographic map to check on the governor, only to see the man was also staring at the holography map intensely.

"Is that accurate?" Salvatore asked with a nod in the direction of the holographic map. A grim nod was the answer.

"Is this Tiberium really that dangerous?"

"Tiberium will kill a full grown adult within 60 seconds of exposure, a child even faster. It will fuse with the skin causing a burning sensation and begin to crystallizes the victim flash spending from the initial infection point until the victim has been turned into Tiberium" Vega said, as he brought up an image of a Tiberium infected civilians for the governor to look at. "If it's breathed in, then the Tiberium will become embedded in the lungs causing the victim to hemorrhage to death as their lungs crystallized."

"EVA, if you will continue…" Vega said.

"Tiberium arrived on Earth in 1995 and within 40 years, 30 percent of the world was designated as Red Zones; areas hostile to organic life, 50 percent was designated as Yellow Zone, areas partially infected with Tiberium but still capable of supporting human life, and the remaining 20 percent was designated as Blue Zone, areas free of Tiberium." Eva supplied, as the governor cringed in horror.

"By 2055, 60 percent of the world was a Red Zone, 35 percent a Yellow Zone, and the remainder Blue Zones" Eva continued.

"That's only five percent of the world still free of Tiberium" Salvatore said, horror slipping onto his expressions before he regained control.

While the governor was gasping in horror, he wasn't alone as the president of the Eurasian Federation herself also joined him, having heard the morbid report over a newly established teleconference link. However Vega didn't notice this as his attention was elsewhere.

"However by 2070, GDI was able to halt the spread of Tiberium and reclaim about 15% of the Earth's surface. Before the unexplained translocation event, 70 percent of the world was a Red Zone, 10 percent yellow zone and 20 percent blue zones." EVA finished, a hint of smugness slipping into its usually emotionless voice.

Vega took a quick moment to check with EVA about the current status of the base, the Airfield and Tech Center were almost completed. The base defenses were already up, perhaps a little on the light side but it was enough for now.

"Oh sorry Commander, but I've been able to make contact with the central government and they are willing to begin the talks immediately. The president is on screen right now." Salvatore said helpfully.

"Thank you" Vega said surprised as he look up to see pale skin, red hair, and a female face staring at him intensely.

"I'm President Julia Borski of the Eurasian Federation and if this "Tiberium" is truly as dangerous as you're told Governor Salvatore than we need to move quickly to contain the situation. I've already passed along word to the military to coordinate with your forces for now."

"I'm willing to establish a special joint zone in southern Italy order to ensure the safety and containment of this Tiberium but in return, I went GDI to share whatever technology you have to fight this "Tiberium" with my government." President Borski said firmly.

"Sharing our Tiberium medical treatment technology is no problem, however, I am afraid that we can't share our containment technology. We will be more than willing to perform all removal of Tiberium from within your territories without compensation." Vega said, as the president nodded, willing to accept that for the time being.

"Our immediate concerns is containment of the situation here and halting the spread of Tiberium. So the establishment of a joint zone would go towards aiding us fulfill our objectives." Vega continued. In other words, the president translated, it would a good way to start relations between them and her nation.

"We would also be grateful it if you would aid us in establishing diplomatic relations with other nations in the region that could be threaten by Tiberium in addition to peacefully introducing us to the global community, Ma'am President." Vega finished.

"I can see no problem with that." President Borski said with a nod of her head and a slight touch of a smile on her face.

"Eva, draw up the documents with all the points mentioned and sent it to the President for her staff to look over before it's officially signed." Vega said, immediately "Thank you for your time. If I may beg your leave, Ma'am President, I have a situation to deal with right now."

"No. Thank you commander." answered the president, right before the link was cut.

"Governor, thank you for all your help, it could have gone worse without you." Vega said, looking at the governor.

"No it's you I should be thanking. If you hadn't arrived then I'll be helpless in my office right now, staring at my wooden desk without any idea what to do." Salvatore replied, relief clear on his features.

"I was just doing my duty, Governor Salvatore. I think you should take the time to rest for a bit while I deal with the rest of the situation. Unfortunately, RAID Crawlers aren't designed with VIPs in mind, so we only have MREs and basic sleeping quarter to offer your people."

"No problem, I know that it's only been a few hours but I admit that it's been the worst couple of hours in my life." Salvatore said, standing up. "Thank you and your government for everything that you've done for me and my people."

"Lieutenant, please escort the Governor and his people to the crew quarters and bring them some food." Vega said, with a slight bow at the governor.

"Yes, sir, if you wouldn't mind, Governor?" Answered the lieutenant before the group moved towards the exit, leaving Vega and the other GDI soldiers in the Crawler Command Hub.

Vega breathed a sigh of relief. Now that was out of the way, the only thing left was making sure that everything else worked out.

"Commander, the Airfield and Tech Center have been completed, construction of the emitters, repulsor rods, and generators have begun." Eva said, bringing up a holographic map on the projector. "ZOCOM has arrived and is currently deploying deep sea sonic emitters on the sea side of the threshold. The 8th and 9th division report that they have deployed several G-330X habitat module for those civilians who didn't have shelter and evacuations have been held off until the weather has improved."

"Ok, good" Vega sighed. Maybe the rest of the day will work out without him having to shoot anyone. "Eva, please inform the high command of the results of the negotiations."

"Affirmative Commander" Eva answered, as she took the nanosecond to inform the Philadelphia.

00

A pair of blue cold eyes stared at the latest data on the sudden appearance of the Global Defense Initiative with their assets and territory.

Physically nothing betrayed the man's emotions to the outside world, but inwardly Azreal felt more like killing something with every moment as he read the data from the Eurasia Federation government to the Alliance.

According to the Eurasia Federation, the Global Defense Initiative's full name was the United Nations Global Defenses Initiative. Azrael's frown slowly deepens until it was a full blown scowl as he considered the potential consequences of that little tidbit of information.

"Finally, to have successfully remove theses idealist old man from power and have the means of enforcing the very will of Blue Cosmos…"

Only to have this unscientific event happen, where islands and space stations appear out of nowhere without any warning, with neither trace nor hint of energy detected…

Eyes twitching, Azrael put down the data pad as he continued his analysis.

Which was impossible, you can't have something just appear out of nowhere without leaving a trace. It was insane and impossible scientifically for such an event to happen.

Standing up, he has to physically restrain himself from throwing his data pad across the room to complement his rant.

"THINGS LIKE THIS DO NOT HAPPEN!"

Yet it just did.

Taking a deep calming breath, he set down and tried to recollect his thoughts.

At least that there was some good coming out of this situation, this Tiberium in Italy was dangerous and hostile to human life. A perfect reason to justify war against the Africa Community and all he needed to do was to move a few pawns around.

He smiled, it was perfect.

A UN created military, huh? They will be easy to play with. Idealist fools.

_Inops Archive: A recent history of GDI_

_The aftermath of the Third Tiberium War in 2049 left much of the world in ruins, the Blue Zones were but a shadow of their former selves due either to the Scrin or the fallout from the infamous Ion strike on Temple Prime ordered by former Director Boyle and the yellow zones were not much better off._

_The then-acting GDI Director, James Hawk, initiated recovery and reclamation operations to repair the damages caused by the largest and costly war since the end of the Second World War in 1953, a century ago. Unfortunate it quickly became apparent that Tiberium was mutating again rendering sonic containment technology useless._

_The loss of Europe to this new form of Tiberium was only a taste of what would follow in the next four years as Blue Zones were slowly pushed back and GDI found itself unable to process Tiberium. GDI found its resources overtaxed and diminishing quickly as it took care of the remaining world population, being forced to ration resources despite increasing unrest and protests. The situation wasn't helped by the presence of warlords, criminals, freedom fighters, and mutants attacking GDI and civilians targets without discrimination._

_All this changed in mid-2055 when Inops made a breakthrough studying the Tacitus, allowing GDI to once more develop the technology needed to battle and process Tiberium for manufacturing. One of the first projects that launched after this development was Project Asclepius, which involved the construction of orbiting stations to artificially grow food for those on the surface and the beginning of reclamation operations by ZOCOM._

_The years that followed was the main reason for GDI deciding to launch Projects Genesis in 2056, which many have both praised and criticized in the years since. GDI's justification for the project was to move the human population off Earth in case of another Tiberium disaster or if another war with Nod threatens humanity's survival._

_In truth, the real reason for the project remains classified as top secret to this day._

_By 2069, GDI had successful colonized the moon in addition to launching four colonization fleet to nearby solar system that were identified as harboring habitable planets. The project also led to the expansion of Space Command to include the Navy and construction of GDI space fleet._

_The disappearance of parts of the world, the orbiting network, five stations from orbit, the first fleet, and the tower left many confused and worried._

_Unfortunately it also led to the start of the bloody Fourth Tiberium War with Nod. _


	2. Chapter 2

**Here is the new, it's been beta read by Hazimat, thanks! There is also a story threat at spacebattles with the name of the story (just do a search). **

Tiberium: The Fires Of Terra Chapter 2

Date: AD 2070/ CE 70, February 8th, 9:35 PM

Eurasian Federation, Italy, GDI Mobius Station, Medical bay.

It had been a week since the event.

In the medical bay, deep within the armoured bulk of the station, the sole survivor from EBN News helicopter 11 laid comatose, embedded within a network of monitoring and life-support equipment. For a week the figure had lain unresponsive as a network of tube and IVs fed his body the medicine, nutrients and processed Tiberium his body now needed to heal itself while a medical EVA unit diligently watched over him...

The beeping of medical devices was the first thing that John Woods heard after a week of pain and shadowy shapes. He felt like hell, his body heavy and barely responsive. As for his vision and his other senses, they slowly returned but how long it took, he didn't know as time passed in a grey haze of pain.

He woke with a start hours later, staring at a bare metallic ceiling. With massive effort, he managed to tilt his head slightly downwards, finding the rest of the room as sterile and spartan as the ceiling.

"A-am I in a hospital?" He subvocalized, finding his throat responding oddly.

Woods tried again to shift his body, with the same lack of results as before. Increasingly alarmed and agitated, he tried frantically to move his head to get an idea of how badly he was injured. Thankfully his futile struggles were stopped by the slight hiss of air announcing the arrival of a nurse clad in an armoured hazmat suit.

"Please stay calm," the nurse said reassuringly as her arms come to rest on his leg arm and chest, gently pushing him back onto the bed "You were hurt when the aircraft you were on crashed."

I...I was in a crash?, Woods thought as he recalled distorted images of chaos and pain.

"Right" Woods answered softly, finding his voice subtlety different. Dismissing it as a result of the accident, he pushed it out of his mind for the time being.

"Please try to rest until you feel better, Sir." The nurse said, in a calming tone as her hands gently rested on him.

"Just tell me, Wh-where am I?" Woods asked weakly.

"You're in southern Italy, at Mobius station" The nurse's reassuring smile visible even through a polarised faceplate, "Don't worry, you're safe now."

"But what about my friend and the…" the look on the nurse's face was enough to shut him up.

"They didn't make it, you were the only survivor."

Woods sagged down on his bed, stumped by the revelation.

" ."

He'd been partners with the S.O.B for the past eight years and now he was dead. His head slumped onto his pillow as he closed his eyes, hoping that this was a bad dream.

"I'm sorry" the nursed said softly as her footsteps faded into the distance.

"Damnit Ruth, you son of a bitch..." he whispered as unconsciousness claimed him.

00

Eurasian Federation, Belgium, Brussels, Cabinet meeting

Date: AD 2070/ CE 70, February 12th, 3:00 AM.

Julia Borski, the president of the Eurasian federation, quietly massaged her head as her inner cabinet and two members of the Federal military oversight committee glared at each other over the implications of 'The Event' and the Global Defense Initiative.

The days since 'The Event' had not been kind to her, dealing with the fall-out of the appearance of the initiative had taken up most of her time she had left after her usual workload. First, of course, was damage control; ensuring the public didn't break down into mass hysteria and providing the guidance the nation needed to face the challenges posed by the "Tegmark Event".

She chuckled in the confines of her mind;as usual, the media just had to give "The Event"a stupid name. She still didn't know why they had chosen to name it the 'Tegmark Event.' after the pre-Cosmic Era cosmologist.

She'd been briefed on 'The Event' by scientists before having to endure the self-serving blabbering of the members of the Federal council about the political and religious impact of the event and the threats and opportunities it had represented for hours at an emergency council session two days ago.

As usual the meeting had been hijacked by old political disputes; there was the senseless and idiotic demands as exemplified by the United People's party (UPP) that the GDI be disbanded like the United Nations or the Eurasian People's Democratic Alliance (EPDA) and their attempts to use the crisis to enact own radical agenda.

Both parties had been a thorn in her side for the last few days as they bombarded the media with their views on what should had been done about the situation, all in attempt to bring down her government. Which brought her to the issues of her own party, the Eurasian Liberal Party, a centrist party that was only in power because they formed a coalition with the other smaller parties whom were under pressure from the extremist of both the left and right wings.

The fact that the event had neither scientific explanations nor left any clues as to what caused it was already causing unrest as people searched for an explanation. She'd heard it being called everything from an act of God to a product of an advanced science that they just couldn't understand. On top of this, the threat of Tiberium was ignored while they focused on the more visible issue of GDI.

Why can't politicians and people understand that she didn't care about any of that, that she was more concerned about the threat Tiberium was to all life on the planet!

Of course, through all this, the various media outlets was being as "useful" as always, adding fuel to the fire by bombarding the public around the clock with baseless conjectures and analysis. To make matters worse, they were giving massive coverage about the Initiative and not enough to the disaster area that used to be Italy, she growled irritably before sighing. They weren't really at fault. They were simply reacting to the demands of the public.

"I've been thinking about the situation in Italy. Thoughts?" she finally said after 10 minutes of silent glares.

"We don't know anything about this United Nations Global Defense Initiative and you went ahead and agreed to create a special join zone in Italy. What the hell were you thinking?!" barked the secretary of defense, Howard Kowalski.

"The situation was dire, Howard, as the transcript from the meeting demonstrates. You can clearly see that if we don't move swiftly, all life on earth may had been threatened. I'd rather not risk it." Borski sighed, looking at her short tempered secretary of defense.

"And I'm impressed and approve of your actions, president, but the secretary still has a point. We don't really know anything about this Initiative then and even now we still don't know much about them aside from their claims of being the military arm of a 'United Nations'." Councilman Smith stated, looking at the president.

"Judging by their actions in immediately deploying forces to evacuate civilians and contain the threat in Italy despite finding themselves in a new reality, I'd say they are friendly. So their actions speak well of them." Councilwoman Alana Agha said, eyeing the councilman before shifting over to the president. "And of course, we have to consider the impact that the Initiative's presence will have us, our allies, and the rest of the solar system."

"A good point, Councilwoman Agha" The secretary of state, Luke Albina said. "The initiative will no doubt impact the military and political situation for everyone but we also have to consider the impact of Tiberium."

"If this is the United Nations we're talking about?" Howard snorted in derision, "Beside they can't do anything without the approval of the Security Council and as far as i can see there is no Security Council."

"You assume, Howard, that in a reality infected with this Tiberium that the United Nations would remain the same?" Luke shot back in annoyance.

"No, Luke, in a world threaten with Tiberium, I expect all nations to take action and deal with the situation themselves and not trust an organization as pathetic and useless as the UN, whose only major achievement in the last century was the colonization of space."

Luke was about to answer but closed his mouth as he saw the growing frown on his president face, as did Howard who likewise shut up. "So could the Initiative be a threat?" the president asked, voicing the thought that was beginning to form in the minds of everyone present in the room.

"Yes, that's why we need to know more about the initiative, Madam president, with the threat that Tiberium presents to all life on this planet, there Security Council could have authorized them not only to contain Tiberium but to maintain world order." Luke stated.

"That's bullshit-" Howard started.

"Damnit Howard! Can't you see that if GDI is the formalized military of the United Nations then they are potentially as dangerous as a united PLANTs!?" Luke snarled, having finally lost his patience at his longtime colleague, "If they have the full support of their Security Council, then for all intent and purpose they are their world's OMNI. And you should know what type of resources OMNI can bring to bear!" He finished, slamming his hand on the table in frustration.

"THAT's MY POINT!" Howard threw his copy of the report onto the table for emphasis "No nations would be stupid enough to surrender their own sovereignty to the United Nations, let alone a military organization founded by the UN. They must have seized control of the world, it's the only explanation. And we're allowing them to build fully functional military bases in Italy! Am I the only one who see that as a threat to our national security?!"

"Goddamnit Howard! That doesn't matter, you seen the reports coming out of Italy! The reports from the Nuclear Emergency Support Team and from CERN!" Alexander Romanov, the science and environmental advisor countered "this 'Tiberium' is every bit as dangerous as the UNGDI told us, and they are the ones risking their people cleaning it up without any official compensation from our government!"

Julia massaged the bridge of her nose as the meeting devolved into a shouting match between her cabinet members. God. Where did they get this energy at this hour of the night?

"GENTLEMEN! ENOUGH!" All eyes snapped to to President Borski as she let loose an uncharacteristic outburst, "I know we all had a stressful week but either debate like civilised people or else!"

Luke's eyes lingered on Howard, aggravated but with a hint of respect, before they finally come to rest on the president. "I fully support your actions and advise that you go ahead with establishing the special join zone. Furthermore, I would advise that we move forward with the initiative's request to be introduced to the international community and the rest of the solar system. I also support establishing closer relations with them."

"Howard?" Julia asked, her attention directed on her secretary of defense as his face began to display various emotions, as he consider Luke's point of view, until it finally settle into one of grump resignation.

"I still think we're making a big mistake, Julia," Howard answered with a sigh,"but since it's your decision, I will support you all the way... I'd also like your permission to move the 3rd and 7th Guard Divisions to northern Italy incase GDI tries anything."

"Permission granted" Borski sighed deeply before continuing. "A diplomatic team with a few reporters tagging along will be leaving for Italy tomorrow. I insisted that the meeting take place there so that the media can get a firsthand look at the 'red zone' as the Initiative calls the region around the tower... Maybe that will shift the limelight onto the danger of Tiberium. Any objections?"

"None, we will support you in this Mrs president" Agha said as her fellow council member nodded in agreement at her.

For a brief moment, silence enveloped the room before it was broken by Howard' secretary, Halen Ohabzee, rushing into the room, clutching a pile of files and a heavy-looking armored laptop.

"Sorry I am late Madam President, councillors, the briefing took longer to prepare than expected..."

"Don't worry about it Helen," Howard waved it away "I assume these are the latest estimates on GDI capabilities?"

"Yes Sir, May I begin?"

"Go ahead." President Borski ordered.

"OMNI satellite imaging and scans of the new landmass in the pacific show a number of cities surrounded by immense fortification and heavy military presence in each, judging by the number of bases within them." Halen said, as she pushed her glasses higher on her nose, it was a habit that was a relic of her more shy days. "In addition data from OMNI, DSSD, and our own agencies indicate that about 600 satellites of various sizes and mass appeared in geosynchronous orbit during 'The Event'. Information received three days ago from the initiative confirms that they own all of them."

"However in addition to these satellites, we also received reports from Mars." Halen said pausing to take a breath.

"Mars?" Councilman Smith asked in surprise.

"Yes councilman, the Martian Confederation reports detecting the appearances of a number of satellites in orbit. In addition our space telescopes also detected what seems to be artificial satellites appearing near the inner edge of the Kuiper belt," Halen said as everyone reacted in surprise at this news. "I followed up on this information and GDI confirms that they also own all of these satellites as part of their Deep Space Network."

"Deep space network?" asked the president, caught off guard by this development.

"Yes, ma'am president, according to GDI it was built by them 32 years ago to detect and keep track of asteroids and comets in the solar system."

"Anything else, Halen?" the president asked, as she considered this new information.

"Yes, shortly after the event, GDI deployed what they called a 'Crawler' and a ship to Italy. The Crawler was sighted entering atmosphere in what we've been able to determine as an orbital drop pod that was seen returned to the station within half an hour of dropping the Crawler. The only conclusion we can draw from this is that the initiative has no need of mass drivers even for heavy payloads." Halen said, finishing.

"But that's impossible!" Howard objected.

"Not according to the footage we have" Halen said, simply, letting this fact sink into the minds of every person in the room.

"Access to this technology could completely revolutionize surface to space travel." Councilwoman Agha whispered.

"Is the alliance aware of everything which you just mentioned, Halen?" Julia asked, her eyes locked on the woman.

"We are not sure, but it is highly likely that the Alliance knows about GDI's cities, orbital net, and the their surface to space capability beyond that we can only speculate but it is unlikely that they know anything else."

"Good, Keep it that way." Julia replied, she had a bad gut feeling about the Earth Alliance ever since reading an Intel report on Blue Cosmos. "Now what about the stations and fleet in orbit?"

"Data OMNI received from GDI shows that three of the five stations in orbit are military while the other two are civilian, one a space colony with civilians and the other a food production facility. As for the fleet, the Initiative have identified it as their First Fleet, the one changed with protecting Earth. From what we've gathered, the most powerful fleet they have, though that is a moot point now." Halen nodded at the president.

"A space colony" Luke chuckled as he stared at OMNI image of the GDI space colony "it certainly doesn't look like one. If anything, it looks more like an armored military installation."

The president ignored the comment "So any other input?"

"No Madam"

"Councillors?" Julia asked the room. A quick shake of the head by each person in the room was enough for her until she got to Howard.

"Howard?"

"I- No, never mind Madam President" He sighed

" Now I believe that covers everything tonight." Julia said, looking around at the assembled faces. "Thank you all for coming to this meeting."

00

Date: AD/CE 2070, February 13th, 8:00 a.m.

Eurasia Federation, Italy, Joint Special Zone, Phoenix Base

When the transport arrived at Ramstein Air Base, Maja Helgaa knew that his next assignment was something out of the ordinary. For one thing, the aircraft's angular, armour-clad yet oddly graceful form wasn't something OMNI or even ZAFT would had ever built, that much was apparent as the massive craft gingerly hovered -(yes hovered!)- over the runway before landing. Then there was the silver-gold insignia of a diving Eagle was proudly displayed on the vehicle's side; one he didn't recognise. That was saying a lot given that he was one of the top correspondents of the Euro-Zone Press Group.

He'd just spent the last couple of weeks working undercover on an article which dealt with illegal underground doctors who claimed to be able to create "perfect" coordinator children. It hadn't been easy but he'd been able to learn that while most of it was bullshit, the stories held a kernel of truth like most urban legends. There were indeed the rare doctors who were willing to do the operation for greed or personal belief hidden away in the underbelly of the medical system.

Sighing as he look out the holographic window, he continued his internal monologue.

He had just submitted his story and was looking to take a few days break when he was suddenly assigned this story out of nowhere. In hindsight being the only experienced reporter in the newsroom at four in the morning might had something to do with it. Lucky for him, he wasn't the only journalist on board; the compartment was filled with two other reporters from other media outlets in addition to a two diplomats. Sitting with him was Bruce Lipton from the Earth Broadcasting Network (EBN),and Viktoria Bernhardt from the Scandinavian Broadcasting Network (SBN).

"So, I'm going to Italy which was now a hellhole because of some science fiction event to cover this GDI which came here by said science fiction event… I hate my life" Maja muttered morosely, leaning back against his chair only to hear the soft "thump" of metal meeting cloth.

Maja ignored it, instead concentrating at how responsive and comfortable his armoured suit, or more accurately, powered armour, was. When they said that he would be provided with powered armour to protect against this 'Tiberium' he had expected something clunky and unreliable like the Atlantic Federation prototypes, which he covered a few years ago years ago..

Maja wasn't too sure what 'Tiberium' is but he figured that he would find out about it later.

There was a slight lurch and a female voice echoed through the passenger cabin from hidden speakers. "Attention all passengers, we are currently a few minutes out from Phoenix Base. Please return to your seats and fasten your seatbelts. The current local condition is moderate for a Yellow zone, with heavy cloud cover and wind speeds of up to 60 kilometres per hour. We would like to take this opportunity to remind our passengers not to remove your armour until it is safe to do so. If you require any assistance, please press the red button on the holographic interface nearest to you. Thank you and we hope you enjoyed flying with us."

A small red button glowed as he felt the dropship decreased its speed and began to swiftly descend towards the waiting buildings before coming to abrupt halt.

"Lady and Gentlemen, we have now landed. Please remain in your seats until an attendant escort you to the exit. Thank you."

The diplomats got up with help from the GDI attendants while he and his co-workers retrieved the armoured cases which held their gear. It took a few minutes before everyone was ready to exit the dropship.

Viktoria chuckle, prompting the Maja and Lipton to stare at her.

"What's so funny?" Lipton asked

"Well it is just a sense of deja vu...I mean we are on a ship out of sci-fi and we are clad in hi-tech power armour and yet everything is just so... normal! I bet that we'd have to pass through customs later." Viktoria smirked.

"Yeah, I know what you mean man." Maja replied as an armoured soldier escorted them to the ramp, revealing white concrete and more people outside in armour waiting for them.

The moment he stepped outside, he was greeted with the sight of alien purple clouds alive with the flicker of lightning. The opposite direction, in the north, was the sight of clouds; both white and purple smashing into each other. It felt unnatural, completely unnatural.

Adding to the incredible sight was the stunning view of the ground below, the transport had landed on a on a raised perform above a full scale military base alive with the movement of armour clad troops, aircraft, and vehicles, marching around the numerous monolithic buildings. It was like something out of a dream, as if he had been transported to the fields of Valhalla, where the armies of the Einherjar prepared for the final battles of Ragnarök.

In the direction of the tower, hidden behind the mountains, he could see an unearthly green glow reflected off the violet clouds there. He remembered getting a quick look at the map in the briefing at the base after waking at the end, Phoenix base was hidden in one of the many valleys in southern Italy near a place called Cutro only 5 minutes' flight from the tower.

Maja really wished that he could snap out his camera and take photos, to capture the mood he was feeling but he didn't because he remembered at the start of the flight, they had all been informed that they weren't allowed to take anything out of the cases that they were given nor take off their headgear because of the high chance of contamination, death or mutation. The tone that the attended used bugged him because it sounded as if this was just another day for her.

He follow the group as it was led by GDI personal into a door right next to the landing pad. As they entered the building the door closed behind them, leaving them in a room with no apparent exit, a quick look around the room for a exit lead to Maja noticing some kind of devices on the walls.

"Please stay calm while the emitters check everyone for Tiberium" Maja heard a soft female voice in his helmet, as a soft hum begins. "This is standard containment procedure to ensure Tiberium does not contaminate the interior of the base."

Claimer now that he'd heard the explanation, Maja berated himself for panicking.

"What are these emitters?" one of the diplomats asked, fascinated.

"Harmonic resonance emitters or sonic emitters, as they are usually called. We developed them to contain Tiberium."

"uh…." Was the answer that he heard over the radio... or at least Maja thought it was.

"Wait, I have a question we've been communicating via radio ever since we left the transport, right?" Maja asked, thinking it was a stupid question as soon as it left his mouth.

"Yes we have."

"Huh, ok" Maja answered, looking around the room. The soft hum disappeared and the other side of the room opened, revealing another room similar in size to the one that they were currently in; however this time there was people waiting inside and GDI's golden insignia could be seen clearly on their shoulder patches.

"Please head to an available counter, the individual there will help remove your armour before we proceed any further."

He did as he was told and joined one of the waiting lines before the next announcement made him duck out in mild embarrassment.

"To all press personnel, there is a tour scheduled in 30 minutes, so please do not remove your suits."

Maja paused, grateful for the helmet which helped hide his embarrassment. Standing off to one side with the rest of the reporters, he passed the time watching the diplomats take off their armour with help until he noticed a man of Indian descent holding the helmet of his own armour approaching them.

"Hello my name is Kathi Shelagh and I'm with GDI Press Corps. I have been assigned to be your guide and liaison for today."

"Nice to meet you, I am Maja Helga from the Euro-Zone Press Group" Maja said, shaking the armoured hand of the man, followed by his colleagues.

"Viktoria Bernhardt, Scandinavian Broadcasting Network. It's a pleasure to meet you" the northern man said, with a smile.

"Bruce Lipton, Earth Broadcasting Network, Nice to meet you too. Sorry, but it sounds like we have a different schedule from the dignitaries?" Bruce asked, smiling.

"We do, after the welcoming ceremony for the diplomatic team," Kathi waved in the direction of the diplomats, "Your president wanted the media to have a look at how hostile Tiberium is to the environment and humanity, so our tour today will start in this base before we head over to Mobius Station in a dropship. Once there, we'll drop by the medical lab before joining up with a patrol team in the area near the tower."

"However before we go on, I assume these are the equipment you're using?" Kathi continued, nodding in the direction of the cases the reporters were holding.

"Right" Maja acknowledged, in all the excitement he'd almost forgotten about it.

"Alright then, I would assume that they are not shielded against electromagnetic radiation, correct?" Kathi asked.

"Er... Some of my equipment is supposed to be shielded by industrial standards but most of them aren't, I assume it's the same for you two?" Viktoria asked, looking at Bruce and Maja.

"Yeah, will that be a problem?" Maja replied while Bruce just nodded.

"Yes. Tiberium crystals sometimes releases powerful radiation and electromagnetic pulses which damage electronic equipments. This release of energy is what causes the lighting you aLL heard overhead when you left the dropship." Kathi explained, "I'm assuming that the cases you're all carrying have your equipment?"

"Yes" Viktoria nodded which caused Kathi to smile as if at some private joke. "Good, if you all will please open them and retrieve what you need, I'll arrange for some hardened equipment for your use later. If you need help, just let me know."

Maja did as he was told, opening the case, and taking out his datapad to take notes on and his camera. When he was finished, he handed the case to the man and then slung the camera strap over his neck, leaving the camera hanging off his neck.

Kathi looked over the three reporters.

"You're a little on the small side, I was exacting a larger group of journalist."

"We didn't get much warning from the government," Bruce answered for all of them.

"Well then, this makes my job alot easier then since I don't have to deal with a carnival. Anyway, are you guys ready to go?"

"Yeah, we're ready" Bruce acknowledged as they readied the equipment of their trade.

"Ok, I'll lead to you to the press box now." Kathi said, leading the group out the door into the hallways of the base proper.

"I've been meaning to ask ever since we've got here, but how did you guys managed to build this base so quickly?" Viktoria asked as they walked down the corridor.

"Well, when your government allowed us to start operations in Italy, we deployed the GDSS Al-Azif - A Global Stratospheric Transport - carrying prefabricated parts and the 17th Engineer Division into this theater of operations. I guessed they worked overtime to finish this outpost on time.." Kathi replied smoothly.

The three journalists shared a significant look, being veterans, they felt that the explanation a bit... off, yet from what they can tell, Kathi was telling the truth. Shrugging they continued to follow their guide.

The press box as it turned out was nothing more than a cordoned off area to on the left of the second level of the next room, overlooking a massive room that was a cross between theater and a hallway with stairs leading up to rooms with glass windows on the opposite level.

Maja watched the ceremony take place without much fanfare. It was a rather straightforward ceremony without much embellishment. The only real detail of interest was the dress uniform of the soldiers lining the hallway. It appears to consist of a navy colored coat, navy trousers, and dark blue service cap. It looked surprisingly utilitarian for a dress uniform.

"Ok, now that is over do you have any requests or questions?" Kathi asked them.

"Do you mind if we walk around and get some interviews?" Bruce asked.

"No problem, just don't wander off and get lost" Kathi replied with a smile at the journalist. Maja watched as his co-workers from the industry wandered off to interview people while he stayed put beside Kathi.

"Do you mind answering a few questions for me?" Maja asked the men beside him.

"Go ahead; as long as it does not infringe on operational security, I'll be glad to answer your questions, It's my job after all." Kathi answered.

"Well then, I was wondering how are your guys handling this?" Maja said, gesturing to his surroundings in uncertainty before continuing "I had no idea what was happening until I was assigned this story when I walked into the newsroom at four in the morning."

Kathi laughed out loud at the man words. "Not much different from your own media outlets I am afraid, we've had to deal with reporters from W3N and BNN asking us stupid questions about the event non-stop. So far as we still have no clear explanation for what the caused the event. We do have a few hypothesis but no proof as of yet."

"I...see" So some things do remain the same no matter what universe you're in. "Is it possible for me to get more details in regards to the possible explanations that you have?" Maja probed, hoping to get more details but failed as the man shook his head. "At this point, GDI would like to gather more information and evidence before we publicly announce our theories."

"I understand then" Maja said, "So moving on, what is GDI Press Corps?"

"GDI established the Press Corps to handles our relations with the media, so if you need interviews or information sometime in the future, contact us." Kathi said as Maja jolted on his digital notepad. "Just let us know and we'll set everything up."

"And the treaty been signed today, do you know any details about it?" Maja asked, finishing the last line of his notes from the previous question and looked up, waiting for the answer.

"Well, the treaty here is about the preliminary establishment of a special "Special Joint Zone" in Southern Italy and to enable us to remove any Tiberium that spreads into your government's territory" Kathi said pausing to allow Maja's to catch up with his notes. "We'll be also providing medical equipment and specialist supplies to deal with health and environmental issues related to Tiberium." Maja finished with the word 'Tiberium' with a question mark at the end.

"Tiberium?" Maja asked, remembering that word had been mentioned before "What is it? I mean we've been told that it is dangerous but what is it really?"

"We don't really know, as far as we can tell, the damned thing is a dense metastable "dynamic proton lattice" held together by exotic heavy particles. It absorbs just about any form of matter and most forms of energy to make more of itself. No-one really knows how it does that except maybe the shiva-be-damn Scrin."

"Anyway I'll be explaining this again later during the tour" Kathi sighed "Tiberium is an alien crystal that is named after the roman emperor Julius Casesar Augustus Tiberius although officially it's named after the Tiber River in Italy, where it first landed in December 1995. "

"Wait, Scrin?" Maja looked up, "Who are they?"

Kathi spat. "As far as we can tell, they are an interstellar type II civilization, which created Tiberium and the tower. Bastards' bugs invaded back in 47 thinking humanity was wiped out by their little 'gift'. We proved them wrong." He finished with a savage smile.

"Er...ok. So why did Tiberium spread, if it's so hostile to human life?" he asked as he continued to take notes, "Didn't anyone try to stop it?"

"Simple, we didn't think it was a threat until it was too late" Kathi said, his tone dead serious before taking a moment to shake his head sadly.

"What about GDI?" Maja asked next.

"The Global Defence Initiative? It was founded by the United Nations in October 12, 1995, in accordance with the United Nations Global Defence Act (UNGDA) as its formalized military." Kathi answered, staring curiously at the notes Maja was taking.

"Wait, you said GDI, shouldn't you have said UNGDI?" Maja inquired, interested.

"No, it's been GDI for a long time" Kathi sighed, staring into the man's confused eyes. "The UNGDI was initially mandated to eliminate international terrorism, to preserve freedom and world order. And as the situation turned out, it was formed at the right moment as the Brotherhood of Nod made its presence felt by starting what amounted to a world war a few years later in 1999 .We later discovered it was because they believed the alien crystal to be the next stage of human evolution... and that's just the start of a century-long story of warfare and struggle."

"That's…" Maja said, not knowing what to say. "Wait, what about the tower? I don't know much but Bruce told me that there is a tower and you just mentioned a 'Scrin' tower ..."

"The tower, I…" Kathi began but stopped as he spotted Bruce and Viktoria walking up the stairs towards them. "We'll finish talking about this later." Kathi nodded at Maja before turning to face the approaching journalists.

"Are we ready to go?"

The three journalist acknowledged with a nod.

"Ok then" Kathi said, leading them down the stairs to the ground floor. "So first of all, I'll like to welcome you all to Phoenix base again" Kathi said, a smile on his face as he turned to look at them before continuing. "First thing first, the tour of the base. The underground tunnels aren't completed yet so we'll be taking the tour through the more dangerous route outside." he continued, nodding in the direction of the main entrance that they entered through earlier.

"Before we head out there are number of things that the three of you need to know, first as I told you just now, you can't carry anything with you when we're outside because there is a good chance that your equipment will be trashed because of Tiberium contamination . This lead me to my next point." Kathi paused for a moment as he took a small case from a compartment next to the door and opened it.

"I see that you brought cameras and datapads with you and judging by your faces, I'm sure that you had figured out that we can't allow you to carry them while we're outside by now. So you'll have to put them in these cases here" Kathi said, grabbing several cases and handing them to the reporters.

"You seem really paranoid about 'Tiberium' contamination" Lipton quipped as he complied.

"You'll be paranoid too before this tour was over."

Maja frowned as he unslung his camera from his neck and put it into the composite case, hesitating slightly, as experience told him that state-provided equipment might be tampered with.

"So what now?"

"We'll be leaving it here" Kathi responded, to the surprise of the three. "there no need to worry, we will be leave everything alone" he continued reassuringly as the cases was handed to armored figure which then place them carefully into a locker on a trolley cart. "I'll be equipping all of you with these shoulder mounted cameras" Kathi said as he took the small cameras out of another compartment and then made his way to the reporters.

"The containers will be delivered to your rooms once we leave" Kathi said as he open a small indentation on the shoulder of Viktoria's armor and plug in the camera before moving on.

"One last thing before we head out, I'll need to teach you all how to use these cameras" Kathi continued while fitted the camera onto Bruce's suit.

"What is t-armor..." Bruce begin, looking closely at the markings on the camera.

"T-armor is composite that's resistant to Tiberium and slow down it's growth rate," Kathi explained, finishing and moving on." As you can probably tell, it stand for Tiberium Armour."

"So is that why the camera looks like a box and we're wearing power armor?" Viktoria said, rather surprised as the armour automatically compensated for the extra weight on her shoulder, allowing her to move around freely.

"Yes" Kathi said as the camera connected with Maja armor, bring to life a HUD on the left side of his visor. "The cameras are covered in about a centimeter of t-armor.."

"That's a little thick."

"Standard design for Mil Spec cameras, especially since we will be visiting a red zone" Kathi replied, moving back to the metal containers that the cameras arrived in.

"Now that is out of the way, here's the instructions. The Otani-Lincoln D-24 is rather simple to use, just look in at the direction you want to film and say 'record' and it will start recording," Kathi said, "'stop' will stop the recording. You can switch between video and camera mode by saying "Vid" and "Cam". Or alternatively you can use the manual controls on the wrist."

He tapped the buttons on his wrist armour for emphasis. "The HUD will display what mode the camera is in and you got over 36 hours of battery life and about two terabytes worth of memory. So practice with the camera here to make sure you get the hang of it before we get going."

"What about focusing?" Maja asked.

"Don't worry, the camera is linked with the suit's optical package which track your eyes," Kathi replied, "So all you'd have to do is look at the target."

They took almost 20 minutes to get use to the cameras before finally starting the tour.

The wait in the decontamination chamber wasn't as long but it was enough for Maja to start recording, thinking that he may as well record the whole trip and look it over later.

As the main doors opened, a barrage of sound assaulted the group, the powerful "hum" of passing vehicles and the deep crack of thunder in the distance creating a cacophony on the base which was audible even through their powered armour. This surrealistic vision was enhanced by the unnatural purple-green tinged light filtering through the clouds overhead .

Maja shuddered slightly at the sight as Kathi led them through a maze of walkways and passageway, passing by buildings until they arrived in front of a massive metal door marked with a simple 'TML-01'. Like the previous building, they had to pass through a decontamination chamber before they could enter the main building.

"This building is one of four that we have set up to manufacture and store medicine and medical equipment to support our humanitarian operations" Kathi said, leading the group into the building and through corridors until they arrived at their destination, a bare room with equipment to the side and a table in the middle with a square object on it and a white cross inside a circle on it.

"Wait, manufacture? Are you saying You actually make you medicine here?" Lipton asked in surprise.

"Yes and no. We're shipping in everything we need to produce medicine like antiseptics, antibiotics, specialised drugs like Tiberium suppressors, and other consumables first fleet had been shipping in supplies from our stockpiles in the pacific and distributing them in this area. In addition, our research facilities didn't come through so Phoenix base will be housing our main research facilities for now. "

"Isn't that dangerous, considering the weather?" Lipton asked.

"It's a risk that we're willing to take, especially since all the supplies are urgently needed in the Zone."

"The first fleet?" Maja asked, confused at the term. "I am assuming you mean your first fleet and not the OMNI's First Fleet?"

Kathi chuckled in response to the question. "Yeah, sorry about that, GDI had been the world government for so long that it kinda slipped my mind." He was rather surprised when the three reporters typed frantically to ensure that they had recorded his statement.

"Anyway, moving on," Maja continued, a little puzzled, typing into a keypad on his his wrist causing a box to hiss open. "This here is a sample of a Tiberium suppressor; Thermodizine, it's one of few that we've developed which is still effective against Tiberium in its current form."

Kathi saw the inquiring look in all three reporter's eyes, "A few years ago back in 65, one of our most prominent scientist, Dr. Allyn Mobius, proposed what had become known as the 'Mobius Theory'. He theorised that Tiberium has four stages of growth, over the course of which it will xenoform a terrestrial world into one which is hostile to the native life-forms and habitable to the Scrin, who we encountered during the Third Tiberium War."

"Xenoform? Does that mean that Tiberium and the 'Scrin' are extraterrestrial?" Bruce asked, surprised, while Maja listened as he consider everything he'd heard so far.

"Yes, our first contact with them was towards the latter half of the war when our Deep Space Network detected their vessels entering the Kuiper belt at high relativistic speed, approximately 50 AU from the sun. At the time we were still recovering from a liquid Tiberium explosion that devastate eastern Europe, so former director Boyle ordered them shot down without attempting to contact them first."

"Ah...So you fought them?" Bruce asked, looking closely for any sign of deceit in the officer's face.

"Well, not me personally but yeah we did. We'll provide more details on the war and our history later. Anyways" Kathi replied, returning the drug to the box and sealed it. "In addition to medicine, we're shipping in our stockpile of emergency kits and shelters that we've designed for Red and Yellow Zones operations here for the population to use. We're also establishing a 40km radius centered on the Tower and perhaps even further out once the final treaty is signed."

"You can't be serious?" Viktoria said in disbelief.

"No, this isn't a joke, Tiberium is extremely hazardous to all organic life and setting up an exclusion zone is simply caution on our part. It naturally produces its own ecosystem and actively spreads into the surrounding environment making containment near impossible." Kathi said, his tone serious. "The presence of Ion storms near the red zones around the tower also means structures that aren't designed to handle extreme weather conditions will be most likely annihilated when the next storm moves out."

"Seriously, you've been establishing a 40 km exclusion zone and just moving people out, displacing thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands of people from their homes?" Bruce muttered in disbelief.

"Just as a precaution, the details are being worked out right now by the diplomats," Kathi stated solemnly.

"But that's almost cutting the country in half!" Viktoria protested.

"We have no choice, humanitarianly speaking, considering how dangerous conditions in the 60 to 80 km zone around the Tower are. The Tiberium crystal formations actively launch Tiberium particles and shards into the lower atmosphere, exposure to which will kill an unshielded adult in about 60 seconds. And then there are the Ion storms. A class one Ion storm, the mildest class, is comparable to a category 5 hurricane. The class 3 Ion storms forming around the tower have average wind speeds of up to 340 Km/h and thanks to the Tiberium saturated atmosphere, these storms will be slinging around lightning bolts which have more in common with weaponized particle beams then any lighting and Tiberium shards that will rip through anything short of reinforced structures."

Kathi sighed tiredly "If we leave the civilians in that zone we might as well be signing their death sentence."

The blank look on Bruce face was enough to show his skepticism at Kathi's rant. It something Maja could understand. A good reporter didn't believed anything without proof but a gut feeling was telling him that the man wasn't lying.

"Look, I don't expect you to believe me right now but we'll be seeing the conditions ourselves shortly. I only ask that you report the facts fairly and honestly." Kathi continued.

"Moving on, the medical equipments you see here are a sample of what we're using" Kathi pointed at the general direction of the machines.

"They look familiar" Helga said softly, recognizing some of the machine by their design but there was a few he didn't recognize. "I'm assuming that these are use to treat Tiberium...?"

"Yes" Kathi nodded, stepping back back to allow all three reporters to have a closer look. "We can move on when you are done."

Maja wasn't really interested in looking at the medical equipment so after a quick look, the man made his to the GDI representative's side while the other two reporters took their time.

"I was wondering if I could get some details on that?" Maja asked, nodding at the gray metal-plastic appearing coating covering all the equipment.

"All equipment and structures we use here is layered with t-armor. The only exceptions are equipment that are designed for use inside" Kathi said.

"I'm done here" Bruce said, satisfied, moments before Viktoria rejoined them.

"Ok" Kathi said, looking at the journalists, "next up is the airfield and then a little trip to Mobius station, follow me." Kathi turned and led the group through the corridors until they were once more outside. There the three journalist followed the Press Corps officer while the sound of jet engines increased gradually until their very bones vibrated in response to the sound of aircrafts lifting off.

Passing a checkpoint as they approached the airfields, the sight of Aircrafts of various shape and sizes being loaded with materials and what looks like red cross supplies greeted them.

"This airfield here is the nexus of our humanitarian operations until the treaty is signed. From here we'd been shipping humanitarian supplies out to the various stations we've set up throughout the 40 km evacuation zone and further beyond. In addition, we're also building up stockpiles of supplies to begin shipping out to the Eurasian Federation as soon as the final treaty is rectified." Kathi yelled over the sound of the aircrafts.

People clad in power armor and what looks to be bulky powered exoskeletons were loading pallets of cargo into the massive waiting transports all around the airfield. Kathi waited a few moments for any question. Receiving none, he turned and boarded the nearest transport, leading the party to the benches forward of the cargo hold.

The transport lifted off without any trouble as the ramp closed with the soft smooth hum of the electrical motors. Maja dropped down onto the bench next to the GDI liaison while his colleagues sat on the opposite side where they began speaking into their recorders.

Maja quickly followed suit, typing the key points of his report into a notepad on the suit's computer.

Kathi watched the reporters at work while silently reflecting on the day's operations so far.

"Kathi I'm assuming that we're heading to the tower right?" Maja confirmed after he was finished his recording.

"Yes, we are" Kathi nodded.

"Is this the Tower we were talking about earlier after the ceremony?"

"Yes. The tower was built by the Scrin during the war and as we discovered at the end of the war, it's phased into another dimension, rending all known weapons systems useless, nothing we have can even touch it" Kathi said, looking around at the journalists how they had perked up in interest at this fact.

"We don't know anything about what the tower's original function was meant to be. The scientists at Mobius had been studying it since the end of the last war and we still haven't made any major breakthroughs. While there were a few theories about using the Tower for some sort of Control Network, it is basically useless to us until we can actually touch it."

To Maja it sounded like something from science fiction but then considering the trip so far, it wouldn't be out of place.

"You mention earlier about the extraterrestrial race Scrin and the third Tiberium war…" Maja asked hoping to get more information.

"The Scrin are responsible for seeding Earth with Tiberium" Kathi said, "During the war we were able to discovery a few interesting details about them as a species. We've been able to determine that they need Tiberium to survive and they are able to utilize and manipulate it in ways that, frankly, seems like magic..." Kathi explained to the reporters, pausing momentarily as he interrupted by the pilot on his radio.

"Sorry we'll have to stop for now. It seem that we're about to arrive at Mobius station" Kathi said as he took off his safety harness and stood up, making his way to the rear while maintaining a firm grip on the hand rails overhead.

The transport slowed and began its descent until it finally landed with a soft thump.

The sound of thunder greeted them everyone onboard as the loading ramp opened. "Before the three of you follow me, take a moment to take a breath, this can be overwhelming for a first timer." Kathi said in amusement before descending the ramp only to stop again. "Also please be careful and don't panic, the conditions outside are a little extreme."

Maja took the Press officer's advice and took a moment while his colleagues pressed forward only to freeze, staring dumbfounded at the sight before them. Maja smiled at his colleague's reactions before finally beginning his descent down the ramp.

The world outside was totally alien. The sky was purple and alive with twisting ropes of electrical energy, burning through the clouds while wind shears laced with glowing particles carved incomprehensible shapes into the atmosphere. It was almost as if the sky was shattered like some insane kaleidoscope. The land was no better, a blasted and barren plateau of rock laced with glowing green and blue veins of Tiberium that emitted a beautiful and deadly grow into the open air above it.

The shear surreality of it brought his breath to halt.

"It's beautiful"

00

Hours later back at Phoenix base, the first round of talks between the Global Defense Initiative and the representatives of the Eurasian Federation had concluded. It was time for a break, so refreshments had been brought out for the diplomats and their assistants while the diplomats of the Initiative conferred on the other side of the room. The break gave the two Eurasian diplomats time to consider everything the Initiative diplomat had laid out.

It was insane and incredible to say the least.

"Well, That didn't go too badly," Stanley D. Jeremiah of the Eurasian state department muttered, rubbing his forehead.

"Except at the end but at least we got the final treaty ironed out and ready to be signed," Caryn Glenna replied with a sigh of relief and exhaustion before knocking back a cup of coffee like a shot of Whisky. "At least they didn't freak out too badly over the PLANTs."

"What else do you expect, they had practically wandered into a war" Stan answered, taking a slip from his cup of tea.

"It more a phony war then a real war" Caryn chuckled , relief obvious in her her voice "and thank god for that."

"Don't be too complacent, you know what the military situation is between us and PLANT if we decided to have a go at each other." Stan said slightly annoyed, "We may have the numbers and older, more reliable technology but they are fielding the newest technology in the whole solar system."

As a career diplomat and a member of a government at war, he understood that it was a position that was unfavorable to say the least and one that the Federal and Alliance military was painfully aware of and were attempting to correct at all cost.

"Not anymore" Cary smirked maliciously. And she wasn't wrong, Stan realised, although the Initiative refused to share their technology, especially as a state of war existed between Earth and PLANT, what little of their technology they had exposed could potentially tip the balance of power within the Earth , if not managed well, it could well destroy the various economies throughout the solar system and that was only the technologies the Initiative had disclosed so far.

"True but with the general international public dislike of coordinators and a terrorist attack that wiped out the United Nations, the only organization that seems to be interested in peace in this damn solar system, we are at war with the PLANTs now and GDI isn't exactly forthcoming with their technology." Stan said in frustration, taking another sip of tea from his cup.

"They have engines powerful enough to push a one kilometer ship into orbit" Caryn said her eyes bright with possibilities, "and you do know that access to that technology and the energy generation behind it could not only revolutionizes our lives but also possibly crash our economy and pull the rest of the world into recession right?"

" 't mention that subject. Seriously the EPDA is not going to be happy about what that will mean for Gibraltar." Stan covered his face with his hand and took a deep breath. The development of the Mass Drivers not only allowed a more effective means of launching cargo into space but it also facilitated an explosion in international trade as large cargos could be moved from one point on the planet to any other within an hour relatively cheaply and effectively.

It brought the world even closer together and made the mass drivers and those who control them the integral centers of the world economy. All of that could well be rendered obsolete overnight if GDI decided to recklessly disclose their technology. And then there was the military and potential terrorism aspects of unregulated easy space launches to consider...

"No one is going to be happy with this treaty, we are effectively cutting out a 75 km radius around the tower- essentially cutting Italy in half. There is also the possibility of the Special Joint Zone (SJZ) being widened if the situation gets worse," Caryn said with a scowl on her face. "Nobody is going to be happy about that, especially since it includes international waters."

"And from the update from CERN and the Ministero dell'Ambiente, we'll probably have to increase the size of the zone in days" Caryn concluded, sighing in sorrow at both her now empty cup and the world in general. "It's going to cause problems. Hell I didn't think it would get this bad."

It was an understatement to say the least, Stan thought, remembering the rather graphic videos and updates that GDI gave them. It wasn't pretty, the whole area after the tower was changed beyond recognition and this was only the beginning. However the worse part of it all was the haunted look on the civilian's face as he died.

There was the look in the man's eyes, one of fear and the certainty of his own death as the man's own body turned into green crystals from his feet and slowly crystallized until it turned his eyes into solid misshapen lumps of Tiberium. The man was a civilian who lived in what the Initiative called a Yellow Zone, who was unlucky enough to be caught in a Ion storm without his Tib-suppressors.

The disturbing thing was the sheer speed at which the infection moved, all it took just 60 seconds from initial exposure for Tiberium to consume the man. As far as the Initiative was concerned the best protection against Tiberium was prevention as the chances of surviving exposure to Tiberium without immediate treatment was less than one percent. It also led to the topic of mutants as the only survivors of Tiberium exposure were mutants.

That revelation, Stan knew, was going to cause problems as it ties in directly to the issue of Coordinators.

"At least, the media that came along for the ride is getting a tour of the place" Caryn sighed, getting up to get more coffee from the refreshments trays. "You want anything?"

"Another cup of tea, please" Stan smiled tiredly, as she nodded in acknowledgment.

At least the treaty laid the foundation for future relations between their two nations and that was something he was thankful for. Now all that he needed was to talk to them about was the international conference that was part of the initial deal made by the president. On the bright side there were only 11 major powers in the solar system aside from the PLANTs. It should be easy to set up, right?

Stan smiled self-deprecatingly as Caryn returned with another cup for him. Just as he took the first mouthful of tea, he faintly registered the GDI diplomats had ended their conference and were moving towards the negotiation table.

Welp, its time to head back to the salt mines.

00

_**Inops Archive: The Mobius theory**_

_The Mobius theory is a theory concerning the evolution of Tiberium. Proposed in 2065 by one of G-Lab's most prominent scientist Dr. Allyn Mobius, a descendant of Dr. Ignatio Mobius, the theory hypothesize that Tiberium has four stages of development, each with its own set of characteristics which are deliberately engineered._

_Stage One: This is the initial and the most benign form of Tiberium. It is characterized by it relatively harmless while still maintaining Tiberium's core characteristics of leaching minerals and other useful material out of the soil into easily collected and refined crystals. The Mobius theory concludes that this most is likely a deliberately engineered characteristic, designed to lure a species into willingly using and spreading Tiberium to increase their industrial output._

_Stage Two: This stage begins the process of transforming the planetary environment via the growth of Tiberium friendly foliage, beginning the terraforming process of the planet. In the process Tiberium's internal structure begins to change, becoming more complex and resilient. In addition, this stage of Tiberium is actively hostile to organic matter and begins the process of extending roots deep underground and releasing airborne Tiberium particulates._

_Stage Three:This stage is considered the most dangerous and is characterized by it ability to rapidly turn infected areas into hostile alien landscapes. This form of Tiberium is extremely dangerous to organic life-forms, capable of killing a full grown adult within a minute of exposure to even a single milligram sized particle. In addition, the initial Tiberium roots of the first and second stage begin to expand deep into the Earth crust and starts the formation of liquid Tiberium._

_However the main threat of this stages arises from the formation of deep liquid Tiberium deposits, formed when Tiberium comes under the Immense heat and pressure of the lower crust. Such deposits of Tiberium can easily be triggered to explode as evidenced by the events of Operation Titus during the Third Tiberium War. During the operation, a GDI ion cannon strike managed to detonate a relatively small deposit of liquid Tiberium under Temple Prime, causing an explosion with an estimated yield of 1.8 gigaton, an event which released 10 times more energy than the most powerful nuclear device ever built by humanity._

_Stage Four: The final stage of Tiberium, it now possess a Macro-scale quantum metastable structure while retaining the same lethalness to organic life. Unlike the other stages. Tiberium in this form is theoretically capable of self replication from any form of baryonic matter as well as energy-mass new set of properties is widely believed to be the cause of decreasing ocean levels and generally worsening situation worldwide in the period between 2048-2060. The deep roots formed during the previous stages have, by this point, extended deep within the crust to the point that it almost touches the Earth's outer mantle layer, making a planet almost impossible to reclaim permanently ._

_**G-Lab: Private Theories- Dr. Allyn Mobius**_

_**-Excerpt from the Memoirs of Dr. Allyn Mobius (C) 2068**_

_...Tiberium is a dangerous substances but that itself is nothing new. Scientists in grandfather's time were able to isolate 28 percent [of Tiberium's properties] that they could not explain and over 50 years of research, the Initiative had been able to decrease that percentage down to 15 percent allowing them to develop medical treatment to treat these who were infected with Tiberium._

_However when Tiberium mutated after the Third Tiberium War changed everything. It gave me the chance to gather data and further develop a theory which I had been slowly building up over the years as a researcher with G-Lab. My research was furthered boosted by the appearances of the Scrin, from whom GDI were able to gather additional technology and Intelligence over the course of the war._

_My own analyst of this data leads me to suspect that the Scrin was on Earth to harvest tiberium which logically leads to the question of the invader's Towers. What are their functions? Are they some kind of transportation device? Massive refineries? Or perhaps a means to control tiberium? I have no solid proof and only circumstantial evidence to support any of these hypotheses so I have little choice but to leave them unanswered._

_Tiberium is a highly fascinating substance/crystal that we've only begin to barely understand, every engineered stage of its life cycle represents an understanding of physics and microengineering which is generations more advanced than our own._

_From our observations Tiberium appears to be designed to develop along four stages which forces a native species to adapt in a predetermined path as it gets more complex, eventually leads to the breakdown of their civilization and extinction._

_This, I believe this is an intentional design as such, I believe that the Board of Directors' decision to push forward with adopting the new technologies found in the Alien device is ultimately wrong, however it is a decision that I can understand considering the dire situation then._

_Though superficially similar to our Sonic technology used to combat Tiberium before it mutated, our basic theories behind the new technology is spotty, practically non-existent in some places. Given the poor state of our understanding, we have no way of predicting how Tiberium might react to this new technology or even whether this technology is a Trojan Horse left by a race allied to the Scrin._

_This is why I continue my research into Tiberium and this new containment technology. I fear that we are close to the end and all it takes is a push to finish us as a species is for this new containment technology to stop working._

_[Unauthorised reproduction of this text will be met with the harshest possible penalties, under the GDI anti-piracy convention of 2047.]_


	3. Chapter 3

Here is the next part, sorry for the wait feed back is welcome :D

Tiberium: The Fires of Terra

Date: AD 2070/ CE 70, February 15th, 5:00 PM.

Press Room, Eurasian Federation Capitol building, Brussels

"Ladies and Gentlemen, the President of the Eurasian Federation"

"Good Evening," Julia Borski's voice rang serenely over the gathered crowd of press personnel. While it was usually the foreign minister's job to announce the signing of treaties, she didn't let it concern her at all, especially not when this announcement is so important to the future of her nation.

"As we are all aware, roughly two weeks ago an unprecedented natural disaster, The Tegmark event, struck without warning causing thousands of casualties and displacing hundreds of thousands more. However, that is not all that the event brought us. Many have speculated over the strange soldiers aiding our forces in Italy and more had pondered over the massive military forces which appeared worldwide. Well, for the last week, my administration, with the full backing of the European senate, has been in negotiations with the leadership of these forces and as of two days ago, finalised a treaty which ensures peace between our two nation and promises humanitarian aid to those affected by the disaster."

"With us is Supreme Commander Verena McNeil, the acting leader of the newest member of the solar system, the Global Defence Initiative. She will be joining us for this conference and will be available to answer question later,"

"Before we start, I would like to say a few words to the people- no, to my fellow citizens" Julia continued, taking a few moments gather herself, "I know that the past two weeks things have being a trying time for us all, however, but know that the thoughts and efforts of the Eurasian people are with you. To those affected by the disaster, know that we will continue to move forward in…."

00

Uzumi Nara Athha, also known by many as 'The Lion of Orb' sat watching the television in his office, focusing intently on every word of the speech for any sign of its true purpose as it was broadcasted live from the other side of the world.

He was much more relaxed than he had been for the past two week. After a week of conspicuous silence from their new neighbour, the Global Defence Initiative, a diplomatic communique had finally arrived, forwarded by the Eurasian Federation, about the possibility of an international conference between the GDI and the rest of the world. After a week of expecting a surprise Invasion, he was relieved that the new power appeared to seek peace and diplomatic relation with the rest of the world instead of invading like some aliens out of a B-grade movie.

The military was still at high alert though. He'd left them orders not to take any actions unless clear hostile action was taken and, for now at least, their new neighbour seems content to reciprocate that gesture. However satellite reconnaissance of the new landmass that belonged to their new neighbour showed heavy military presence of such a scale that more than one analysis had assumed that it was a massive military build-up before discovering that was the same level of force as transferred through the Event.

He took another sip of coffee and sighed.

Orb's safety was built around distance, neutrality and an army which can at least bloody the nose of any attacking forces. However with a new unknown player right next to their heartlands, two of Orb's defence was effectively neutralised, leaving the army, which by all indications was outclassed in every way by GDI's, as their only deterrent.

If any of the superpowers really wanted to invade, the most Orb can hope for is to bloody the invasion force enough that public pressure force the invasion force to withdraw. As it is, any determined attack would shatter Orb's military like a sheet of glass. That was one of the reasons why he had authorised the G-project. However the speed that recent events are occurring…

"…it is my pleasure to announce that over the weekend, my administration has signed a treaty with the Global Defence Initiative concerning the situation in Italy and the Mediterranean region. The Isola di Capo Rizzuto Treaty," President Julia continued on the high definition screen, "was signed in response to the highly toxic and self-replicating crystal, Tiberium, which is even now spreading through southern Italy.

This treaty will give our forces and GDI the authority needed to ensure the safety of civilians in the affected region. As a gesture of goodwill by GDI ,the treaty also have provisions for GDI to provide for medical and humanitarian aid to Federation civilians who are caught in the disaster. It also establishes a Special Joint Zone where our governments can work side by side… "

00

Meanwhile, in a certain office not far from the white house at the heart of the Atlantic Federation, James Taylor Robinson- or just James as he preferred to be called-, raised his glass of whisky in salute at the world class diplomatic manoeuvring the Eurasians were pulling off even as he kept an ear glued to the live broadcast.

As a former diplomat himself, he had to admire the way that his counterpart across the Atlantic seized the crisis and made it into an opportunity in an attempt to veer her country away from the oncoming war with the PLANTs.

Oh, he had no illusions about how much of the Eurasian military will be left available to the Earth Alliance after they get "tied up" in this new special joint zone, nor was he blind to the fact that if this Tiberium was as dangerous as all indicators point it to be, it would be a perfect excuse for the Eurasian Federation to sign a conditional ceasefire with ZAFT for "the duration of the containment effort" no doubt…

He knocks back his whisky, thinking of this latest minor setback in The Great Game, pondering lazily for a way to neutralise his nominal partner's newfound gains. "Of course, now that I think of it, the Alaska Declaration does have quite a few loopholes…"

His thoughts were interrupted as a young looking lady marched onto the podium by President Borski's side on the screen.

"Good Evening, My name is Verena McNeil and I am the Supreme Commander and the acting Director of the Global Defence Initiative." The woman started in a clear yet powerful voice. Judging by her posture and presence, it was obvious to James that she was use to this type of thing.

"Before I begin, I would like to thank President Borski and the people of the Eurasian Federation for their kindness, honesty, cooperation and restrain in our dealing in the days since the event, it is an honour to work with you and know that the Global Defence Initiative owe you a debt of honor."

James turned his head slightly to get a better look at the newest player in the solar system. "Not bad," He thought, "not bad at all."

"…ith, the last two week has been a trying time for all of us, both for us, newcomers ripped into an unknown world teetering on the brink of war and for all of you, victims of an unexplainable calamity which introduced an implacable foe to your world. Even as I speak Tiberium is spreading through Italy and the Mediterranean Sea causing still more death and suffering."

"However with the help of the Eurasian Federation as exemplified by The Isola di Capo Rizzuto Treaty we hope to contain that scourge of humanity. With help of the Eurasian Federation, the Initiative seeks to extend the open hand of friendship to all who will accept it. Even as I speak, the Diplomatic corps of the GD…"

James smiled as he listened to the Supreme Commander's speech. It would appear that the Eurasian Federation had gained a capable and dangerous ally of sorts, he decided as he listened to her explain the details of the treaty. It was the logical course of action of course, considering their neighbour, the African Community, was a cesspool filled with scum of every flavor imaginable and allied to ZAFT to boot.

Lazing back, he poured himself another another shot from the bottle nearby. While professionally he congratulated his colleagues across the Atlantic for their diplomatic success, his personal feeling were another story altogether. He was no fool by any means unlike some of his... underlings. He knew perfectly well what the implication of this treaty will be on Blue Cosmos's plans and the path of his nation. If the Eurasians manage to pull off a cease fire with the PLANTs he had no illusion where that would leave the Atlantic Federation and Blue Cosmos, especially considering the historic antagonism between the two superpowers and the Technological advantage that ZAFT held. And the worst thing is, he can't do anything about the Treaty, not directly at least.

He sank back into his chair with an annoyed huff, his earlier good mood dissipated by his mounting annoyance. He'd read OMNI's report on the technological and estimated military capabilities of the GDI and it was disturbing to say the least. Judging by the observed strength of GDI, any conflict between them and the Earth Alliance will leave the alliance with barely a shadow of its military strength and an easy target for any two-bit power much less ZAFT.

Taking one last gulp, he sighed. He would have preferred it if they were the ones who had made contact with GDI first, the first to colour their initial view of the world. With an alliance between the Atlantic federation and GDI, ZAFT will be easily crushed and the PLANTs will be forced to return the economic wealth which was rightfully the property of the Earth.

However as he listened to the Supreme Commander speak of peace and diplomacy, he changed his mind. At least this latest crisis will further weaken the Eurasian Federation who are already reeling from their massive investment into the PLANTS going up in smoke and keep them out of his way.

And perhaps, that was a change he could take advantage of. He'd been successfully in delaying that ill-advised project before it could ruin anything important and kicked off this war before his own project was ready, but the few close calls that had occurred still make him break out in cold sweat. He was pretty sure that he pissed that asshole off royally but he couldn't really care less at this point, controlling the G-Project and ensuring its success is the most important thing now. A vicious smile appeared across his face at the reminder of his pet project.

"Lets see how many of those old arrogant fools will come crawling when I show them the technology to mass produce mobile sults which will allow every Earth soldier to utterly crushanything ZAFT has fielded so far".

A part of him found it Ironic in the G-project, coordinators are the ones creating the tools for their brethren's downfall but yet it felt entirely natural. After all what are the coordinators but tools, born and bred to ensure the glory and advancement of humanity? And if a part of humanity must be sacrificed to ensure the advancement of the greater whole, so be it.

After all, all of this is for the sake of a Blue and Pure world and her children's path to the stars.

00

It was an open secret that Central Intel Operations, ZAFT's intelligent division, couldn't find it way out of a wet paper bag on Earth, although that is not surprising to anyone considering that their allies on Earth were useless. The African Community, for example, while processing some military capability, seem to alternate on collapsing into anarchy, imploding into civil war or launching a massive pointless religious war against the world (and itself) depending on the day of the week. Sure there was a few country in that shithole which was actually competent like Nigeria, Ethiopia and Egypt, but for the most part, they were the exception which proves the rule. The other allied nation was the Oceania Union which, while the complete opposite of the African Community politically, suffers from lack of power projection and isolation.

Just about the only good things that could be said about the two was that the former was a difficult place to operate in, regardless of affiliation and the latter is a safe heaven which allowed ZAFT to set up a base of operations for its terrestrial forces, granting them a foothold on the surface.

Thus the first inkling that CIO and ZAFT had of what the media was calling the Tegmark event, was a sudden spike in fragmented and contradictory media report all over the Earth sphere, followed by a frantic ZAFT admiral screaming his head off, demanding to know why Intel and High command had not warned him about a fleet whose capital ships alone outnumber his entire task force by at least 30:1.

Understandably worried, the ZAFT high command ordered a full alert and mobilisation, preparing for the inevitable invasion. However what the military ended up doing for the next two weeks was waiting nervously for an attack that never happened almost shooting down councilor Zala's shuttle in one particular incident. So while the military sat around doing nothing and being mostly useless, the Central Intel Operations spent that time listening to the chaotic news flowing out from Earth. That when combined with data from spy satellites and the small handful of agents in Africa was still unable to give a clear answer of what was happening to the council. Still it was enough to form a general picture.

As time went by, information started to trickle in. There was the cloud formation which was impenetrable to nearly all sensors over Italy, a new massive Island in the Pacific Ocean next to Orb with enough weapons on it to start world war IV and a gigantic unidentified Fleet defending several stations in orbit. That when combined with CIO's own analysis of the various news media, especially those from Europe and reports from its agents in Africa, gave enough information to begin to paint a picture of what was happening on the ground.

And the reaction of the council when they had delivered their findings haven't been pretty. Even now, despite all the evidence to the contrary, half the council was still convinced that the events of the past two weeks was some kind of Earth Alliance trick while the other was uncertain.

Hence when the Eurasian Federation declared they would be holding a press conference on the Tegmark event, the Council decide to watch the broadcast during their emergency summit, allowing them to decide on their course of action then and there. Thus the Council now found itself watching the holographic display in the center of the Council room silently, intently following the development of events in their ostensible enemy.

"...and now that we are here in your reality, our only path is forward, hopefully towards a future of peace and prosperity." The natural paused before going on " However with the recent tensions between this Earth and its colonies, that may well be impossible. That does not mean we are not willing to give peace a chance. As of now and for the foreseeable future, GDI will remain neutral towards both the Earth Alliance and the Colonies and will be willing to act as a mediator between the two parties should they request it. That said, any act of aggression will be dealt with...accordingly."

She paused to take a slip of water and for a moment, a brief hint of sorrow and regret wash over her features before she faced the camera again."When the United Nations founded the Global Defence Initiative, they entrusted us with upholding the ideas of their charter and the United Nation Global Defence Act and for the last century, we had done our best to carry out this duty. The event does not change this."

"As of now our primary concern is ensuring the survival of the human race and that is the only duty we intend to fulfill. Thank you for your time. I will now step aside for president Borsk" the natural finished coldly.

The president stepped forth "Now there have been many who have doubted these reports, especially the recent stories coming out of Italy but I assure you that the situation is entirely serious. As of two hours ago, my administration has released all data it has complied on the Tegmark event and on the effect of Tiberium to all scientific institutes globally for independent verification."

A significant number of council members frowned at this statement before turning to stare at the science minister who shrugged helplessly.

"In addition, as part of this treaty my administration has agreed to hold a Solar System wide Conference, where the Eurasian Federation, GDI, and the various nations within the solar system can talk and establish solutions for current and future issues." The president paused to give everyone a little time to consider the meanings behind her words. "This course of actions was taken after my administration considered every possibility and with the support of the Eurasian senate. Furthermore, the senate has also made the decision to withdraw all Eurasian forces from the Earth Alliance until the end of this crisis as per article 6A of the Alaska Declaration. In addition, my government will be ceasing all offensive operations actions against PLANT for the duration of this state of emergency."

All around the room and the world, a moment of silence stretched out as people digested the statement before reacting, some with jubilation, some with relief, some with disappointment and some with rage. Undeterred, President Borsk continued.

"However in the light of our long friendship and common ties ties we share with the other members of the Earth Alliance council, we will not leave them to face a belligerent ZAFT alone, Elements of the Eurasian Defense force 2th Fleet and the 7 army group will be transferred to the Earth Alliance command effectively immediately."

"The invitations for the conference will be sent to all nations throughout the solar system. The conference itself will be held at (New) Sydney Cove in the pacific, within GDI territory. Though unconventional, GDI is the only unbiased polity in the solar system and the only other truly neutral meeting ground is still rebuilding from the Copernicus tragedy. Given the state of war between PLANT and Earth, the Initiative has, in the interest of peace, agreed to hold the conference on their territory on the eighth of May, to allow the Martian Confederation time enough to make send a representative and to avoid any possible repeat of the Copernicus terrorist bombing."

The natural paused again and the councillors unconsciously held their breath until she spoke again. "And finally before I step side again to make room for the Supreme Commander to answer questions, I have one final topic to talk about and it deeply pains me. GDI has informed my administration that Tiberium does cause mutations in humans who survive unprotected exposure to it. As such while my government will be coordinating with GDI to move civilians out of the JSZ and into…"

"Are we going to send anyone to the conference?", the representative of Maius City on the National Defense Committee asked as the holographic TV muted allowing everyone to speak without raising their voice.

"This development is unexpected but we can use this to end the war before it gets out of hand. After all we weren't responsible for the Copernicus city bombing that wiped out the last peace talks." Councilmember Herman Gould replied eagerly.

"It could be a trap" Councilman Jeremy Mazwell, a member of the Legislative Committee, countered harshly..

"I doubt it" Seigel Clyne said, the Chairman of the Supreme Council, "it would be foolish for them to try anything now. According to what information we have, we're talking about a military organization founded by the United Nations and one that was faced with a serious internal problem at that. To try anything now and attract more problems for themselves would be foolish."

"You mean Tiberium?" Patrick Zala the Chairman of the National Defense Committee asked, staring at the holographic display of the world that replaced the TV feed.

"We know nothing about it but we'll likely be learning more about it from the Earth media. I'll make sure that Intel keeps an eye out for it."

Everyone in the room paused, waiting for Zala, the only true neutral on the council to speak. He was also the one member respected by both sides of the council, both for his leadership skills and his ability to handle people. As such when he spoke the other members listened and rarely questioned him.

"The Supreme Commander claimed that GDI was founded by the United Nations. Do you all honestly think that a military organization founded by the UN will tolerate war when they there is a clear threat to the planet?" The silence was answer enough of an answer as each member considered the meaning behind the question.

"Her intentions are clear enough," continued Zala "I agree with the chairman, it would be foolish for anyone to try anything especially in a location controlled by the United Nations," Zala paused for a moment to drink a glass of water. "Also the withdrawal of Eurasian Federation from the Earth forces will weaken the Alliance by 35 percent but more importantly it means the removal of three fleets from the Earth forces."

"Do anyone else have anything to add?" Seigel asked the council only to receive silence for answer. "Then there is no objections with sending a diplomatic party to this conference?"

"None. The PLANT's must be represented at this conference, to do anything else will give our enemies an advantage. " Zala answered for everyone, as he consider the military situation and his plans for them. Although Zala didn't show it to the outside, he was a worried man as just a day before he had received a video. The video in question was from CIO, a recording from one of their spy satellites showing a capital ship belonging to the UN organization leaving the atmosphere without the aid of a mass driver, a technology which if it become widespread, will dramatically changed the balance of power between Earth and the PLANTs.

More importantly it worried him as it meant that ZAFT's operation plans against the Earth forces was worthless as wet toilet paper against these newcomers.

00

Back at the press conferences on Earth, Supreme Commander McNeil step towards the microphones as her eyes scanning the crowd with a slight predatory smile on her face.

"Does anyone have any question?" McNeil asked, as hands shot into the air in response to her question while cameras flashed and reflected off her unnaturally green eyes. "Yes?" McNeil said, pointing at a random person.

"Thank you, Director, my name is Albrecht Bora from the Herald Times, can you elaborate on the circumstances which led to your United Nation going such extremes as to form something like the Global Initiative? "

"The Global Defense Initiative's roots lay with Operations Group Echo: Black Ops 9, a United Nations special operations group formed in the aftermath of the second world war, a war which left an estimated 140 million soldiers and civilians dead and left parts of Europe, Asia and North America a poisoned, radioactive wasteland. Indeed, the United Nations was established by what remained of the Allied nations in order to rebuild the world after that war. As for the Global Defense Initiative itself, it was formed in the 1990s out of Operations Group Echo when it became apparent that a small special operations task force, while very efficient, did not have the resource needed to stop every war in an increasingly globalised world." McNeil finished, only to look up at the surprised and pale faces of her audience.

"Are you saying that your Second world War went Nuclear? But Nazi Germany... Hitler... Impossible..."

"Hitler?" McNeil repeated blankly "Ah, my apologies, in my world, the second world war broke out in 1946 between the Allied Nations, the Empire of Japan and the Soviet Union instead of against the Axis powers in 1939 in your own timeline. GDI will make the history of our world available soon and I am sure that historians will find the differences in our histories interesting but does that answer you question for now?"

"Yes...Thank you." The reporter sat down while the acting-director pointed at another questioner.

"Thank you, Supreme Commander, my name is Renee Steele with the Daily Star, you mentioned that Tiberium causes mutations in humans who are exposed to it and as the president said it terraforms the planet into an environment that is habitable to these…Scrin. So my question is does Tiberium have any other uses aside as a terraforming agent?"

The smile on the Supreme Commander's face narrowed as she finally answered. "Yes, Tiberium can indeed be used for other purposes beyond its initial purpose of terraforming," McNeil paused for a moment still with the smile on her lips. "Initially I was advised by my advisers not to share this knowledge but I firmly believe that it's a mistake and I would like to avoid repeating history. Tiberium isn't just a terraforming agent. It's also an energy source."

"This is one of the main reason behind the First Tiberium War, the Brotherhood of Nod encouraged third and second world nations to embrace Tiberium and use it to provide cheap energy at the cost of spreading Tiberium. This move was nothing more than a sham designed to drive a wedge between them and the first world nations whose scientist proved how dangerous Tiberium really was. Those nations were overran by Tiberium and the Brotherhood of Nod in short order took control." the Supreme Commander finished. Seeing that the reporter was done, McNeil moved on, picking out the next reporter.

"Allen Howard of the Washington Daily, what are GDI intentions now that you find yourself here in our reality?" the reporter paused to look at his notes before looking up again slightly nervous as the director's cold green eyes bore into him.

"Our intentions are simple, we plan to confine Tiberium to Italy to the best of our abilities and relaunch a number of programs."

"And these programs are…?" Allen continued, hoping to get an answer.

"GDI's plans in the near future is to build settlements on the Moon, Mars, and to colonize the outer and nearby solar systems…" a few members of the press coughed in shocked and the rest of the world more or less followed "The settlements on the Moon and Mars will be used as a base of operations for our asteroid belt mining operations which we hope to restart as soon as possible in order to provide us with the needed raw materials needed to fund our deep space programs."

"Just one more question; couldn't these programs be taken in the wrong way? Especially with the current state of war that exist between the Alliance and PLANTs?" Allen asked, slightly less intimidated.

"Perhaps, but one of GDI's primary mandate has always been to ensure the continued survival of the Human race and however low the chances of a war between Earth and PLANT causing human extinction, we rather not take the chance." McNeil replied.

"But isn't that unrealistic considering the situation right now and shouldn't GDI focus be on combatting the spread of Tiberium?"

"Combating Tiberium requires International coordination and quick actions, we've taken quick actions with the Eurasian Federation to contain Tiberium to the best of our capability but there is no certainty that we'll be successfully until later in the year. At the moment, we have contacted the African Community and seeing if we can establish a similar treaty with them, beyond that there is not much more we can do on the Italian front." McNeil answered.

"Thank you Madam Director" Allen sat down and wrote on his datapad. "Yes?" McNeil said, pointing at the next person.

"My name is Lauren Walker, with the Earth Broadcast Network. The president mentioned that the Special Joint Zone can be increase due to the nature of the treaty, will it be increasing any time soon?"

"Tiberium is extremely prolific and this event is the best chance we've had in decades to eliminate it completely. In our reality the Tiberium had effectively and thoroughly saturated the Earth's crust. Here, however, the red zone is only a roughly six kilometer hemisphere around the tower, giving us a chance to dig underground and place sonic emitter to stop it from spreading. This program was launched a week ago. The real problem we have is the possibility of Tiberium had been spread via the air currents."

"So the answer is yes, at the current rate, we most likely be forced to increase the SJZ again to ensure the safety of the public. Keep in mind that the region around the tower is being turned into yellow zones, region which, while survivable to human life, is tortured by almost daily hurricane class storms and radiation emitted by Tiberium." McNeil said before quickly launching into a more detailed explanation of the difference between a red, yellow, and blue zone. When she was finished another question was waiting for her.

"Are there any plans for civilians to be returning to their homes and if not, are there any plans to deal with their displacement from their homes?"

"Yes, as part of the treaty we'll be aiding the Federation with setting up new housing, medical aid, and so forth for the civilians displaced by Tiberium."

"It was mentioned earlier that Tiberium causes mutation in humans. In CE 16 the international community established a protocol that prohibits genetic modification of any kind to be done on the human genes, now admittedly they can't be blamed for the change but have you or the president considered the issue?"

"GDI has always considered humanity's continued existences to be far more important than any issue of genes alteration" the Supreme Command replied emotionlessly as, hidden from the cameras, her left hand began to literally crush the steel podium while the smile that had been on her lip froze for a moment before returning. "Are there any more questions?"

Seeing none the press conference ended, as the Supreme Command stepped aside and reporters began to scramble to finish their story as soon as possible and published in time for the prime time news slot.

00

Rau Le Creuset smiled as he watched the press conference on Earth ending on the holographic display before him. It was an interesting and rather informing experience for him as he watched the GDI general speak, he noticed a number of interesting details about her but what stood out the most for him were the Supreme Commander eyes. They were a little too green, Reu thought, much too Green to be entirely natural...

Naturals from another reality who cared little for the differences between one's gene. Interesting, but are they truly any different? There was no telling without the time to see them in action, putting their words into actions. Something else that else he found interesting was the stance and appearance of the Supreme Commander. He could feel it, the aura and presence of war radiating from her as he watched the conference.

Rau considered the Supreme Commander word's from earlier and at the deepest level within the man, he found it stimulating. All the scientific knowledge that he know of only hinted at the possibility of alternate realities to actually encounter another version of humanity, one that had experienced a history completely different from their own and had produced a United Nations that was stronger and willing to go as far as to create its own military to enforce peace... it was humbling in a sense.

And curious that the United Nations of two different realities could take such different paths. It made him wonder, will he be any different if he walk down the path of another reality?

That moment of whimsy didn't last long as his mind pushed the thought aside. There was no point in wondering about the "what ifs" of other realities when the only one that mattered is this one...

"Were they really were different from the naturals and coordinators of this reality...?" He contemplated, "while they seems not to possess the hate that engulfed all of humanity, that evident enough from the Supreme Commanders words but to stop the hate and the fires of war from costuming humanity... would their threats be enough?"

Only time would only tell, Rau decided in the confines of his mind as the rather unnerving smile widen on his lips. Only time can tell and he will enjoy watching it all.

00

On Mars, the president of Martian Confederation was silently contemplating the meanings behind the satellite transmissions from Earth. It was a little known fact that both the Confederation and the Deep Space Survey and Development Organization (DSSD) maintained a joint satellite relay network which allowed both to keep up with events on Earth. Built back when Mars was newly colonised, there had been occasions where the joint program had been of great benefit to both organizations. Such as now.

Although technically the civilian population leant towards ignoring Earth and leaving the trouble which brought them here behind, he knew that such a thing was impossible. President Heydar Fereydoun knew that like Orb, Mars was no different, any determined move by the Earth against them would likely end in a costly victory for the invading forces.

And now there was this insanity, Heydar thought, a nation from an alternate reality and an organization that was the military arm of the United Nations? It was madness but... he'd initially hoped that these events would once more leave Mars alone but the moment the Solar System wide conference was called for, it caught his interest. Later on when the GDI revealed the scope of their other programs, it captured his attention even more as up to this point no one on the Earth Sphere had considered such ambitious programs.

The only organization that even came close was the under-funded DSSD.

He had to send someone, Heydar decided, just as his secretary entered bearing bad news.

"Sir, the Chamber is demanding a meeting right now,"

"Tell them I'm coming right now," Heydar replied as he rose from his seat. This was going to be an utter bitch of meeting, hopeful it wouldn't be as bad as the initial emergency meetings weeks ago when the madness on Earth first happened.

00

Hidden in the perpetual twilight of the Red zone, a shadow team glided stealthy from cover to cover, making their way towards the yellow zone beyond the red zone around the tower. Shadow team Zulu was one of many teams working to emplace sensors network beyond the red zone that the Brotherhood was calling home. The coverage of the networks of sensors so far was spotty with the furthest sensor being only 10km inland.

Zulu team had already placed their sensors pods and was currently on recon duty. As such they moved cautiously, slinking from cover to cover like ghosts until they reached high ground where they could get a better view of the surrounding landscape. Although GDI wasn't aware of Nod presence, each team had been given orders to keep it that way and not to give GDI any reason to look, so as such all movement was slow and cautious with the bare minimum usage of electronics.

As for the network, each sensor was designed to operate as one massive network, transmitting data from one to another using nearly undetectable tight beams until the information flowed into Nod's only base to be transfer during the event. The situation wasn't odd for Nod, a man thought, hidden away in red and black shadows of the Nod base as a gleeful smile crossed the his lips.

Behind him, man and material could be seen being directed in some arcane ritual. The ground shook as these men and women worked and yet this didn't worry the man at all.

00

Deep within the depths of space 1543 light years away, a message was received at the core of a local Ichor mining operation from an unknown sender on the edge of the threshold network. Located at the edge of Scrin space, the managing AI of the operation dutifully checked the intended addressee and recipient and that is when the AI ran into its first set of difficulties. It notified Supervisor 8923, at which point it was ordered to search their records for the identity of the sender. It checked everything for the last couple of cycles and eventually all of their records, still it didn't find it.

Yet it was able to determine that the clearance code and the threshold frequency was within the acceptable range, indeed the Unknown Threshold's clearance level appears to be for a mining base facing significant military opposition, a unheard of event in Scrin history.

So with the little answer for his questions, Supervisor 8923 passed the information to HQ and took the precaution of remotely locking down the unknown threshold tower.

Unknown to the Supervisor, a second message was sent from the towner carrying with it the highest military authorization available in the Scrin Empire and it was forwarded by the civilian Hub AI network without question, bouncing it from Hub to Hub until it reached the homeworld entered the military AI network, where it was flagged and checked before finally it was delivered to the supreme leader of the Scrin race.

The Overlord.

_ZAFT Central Intel Operations (CIO):_

_Oppose Militancy and Neutralize Invasion (OMNI) Enforcer_

_Better known to the public and the media as the Earth military or Earth forces, this organization is a military alliance controlled by the Earth Alliance Council, a governing body made up by representatives from each member-state of the alliance and led by a Secretary-General. OMNI possess a military that is far larger compared to our own, as it commands the combined might of the various member nation's military forces. The military branch is headquartered at a heavily defended location in Alaska, known as the Joint Supreme Headquarters Alaska (JOSH-A) while the council is headquartered at Washington D.C, the capital of the Atlantic Federation and the former United States of America._

_Analysis of the new Earth Alliance from public sources show that it's similar somewhat to the former United Nations Security Council in structure and function, with each member having a vote and veto in determining the course of action of the alliances._

_OMNI Enforcer integrates the majority of all the member nations' space and portions of their terrestrial forces into a single organization. However unlike ZAFT, the Earth Forces is still a newly founded organization that is still dealing with the problems of integrating its various military forces into a single functioning organization._

_Excerpt from Print Edition, The Pacific Press, December 5th, CE 69._

_A House Divided by Genetics by Tal Sven. Opinions._

_...When the most powerful nations on Earth signed the Alaska treaty, it effectively deposed the United Nations into the relics of the past. Yet another example of an organization that was founded to maintain peace and failed just like the League of Nations before them failed in an increasingly hostile world in the early to mid 20th century._

_The world has come a long way from the initial colonization of space launched by the United Nations at the dawn of the 21th century and only a year after the end of the Reconstruction Wars. This new space age was only made possible with the United Nations coordinating the various newly established world orders in the colonization of space._

_Yet even as the spectre of the past century faded with the influx of cheap resource from space, new problems arise as new divisions appeared, and these can be see no more clearly than in the present situation, a state of war between PLANT and the newly established Earth Alliance. It can also be seen in the continued support from certain portions of the public for well known public figures such as American politician Ryan Shaah and the extremist organization Blue Cosmos spokesperson Lia Berenice._

_The move to sign the Alaska treaty had, in effect, cut out the PLANT from any means of political influence on Earth and enlarged the gulf between Naturals and Coordinators. And thus it is no surprise that Mars has become a desired location for these who wish to escape from the hostilities that engulfs the Earth Sphere._

_Unfortunately with both sides unwilling to back down, any possible move will only widen the gulf between Naturals and Coordinators, so the question then is there any possibility of peaceful solution in the future or will blood be shed in another bloody reminder of the price of peace for humanity?_

_The G-Project_

_Extract from Head Scientist Jack private notes_

_...am satisfied with the project. We've successfully created machines that outperforms ZAFT's Mobile Suit in all margins. These new machines have been named the General Unilateral Neuro-link Dispersive Autonomic Maneuver system or as I prefer to call it a Gundam. But enough of that, what I'm really proud of is the technology that we've developed, especially the beam weaponry which up until this time could only be mounted on ships or bases and never on something as small as a Mobile Suits. This alone is enough to change the battlefield, granting a weapons platform like the Gundam, the ability to carry anti-ships weapons making them a much more effectively against ships._

_Moving on, other breakthrough includes Phase Shift armor, a development that could possibly spell the end for kinetic weapons, Striker Packs that allows a MS to change it's armaments to suit the battlefield, Mirage Colloid technology which itself is a major breakthrough, a beam sword, and the Lohengrin positron blaster guns. These breakthroughs has led to the development of five unique MS and a new class of ships that we've named the Archangel Class..._

_I have to admit that it saddens me quite a bit that fighters will soon be a thing of the past but progress is progress. Though I still have no Idea why the funding for the Pendragon project, which will fully integrate all our new developments throughout our more conventional forces was cut._

_GDI Integrated Combat Suit (ICS)_

_GDI Engineering - Standard Infantry Armor_

_The ICS armor is a lightweight armor designed to replace the previous armor used by GDI Infantry, which lacked many of the advanced features seen in Zone Trooper armor of which the most important was lack of sufficient T-armor to protect the wearer from Tiberium during extended operations. This design flaw led to the increasing use of Zone Troopers in place of standard GDI Infantry, towards the latter half of the Third Tiberium War._

_The ICS armor is a self sealed armor designed with similar internal features to Zone Trooper armor, such as inbuilt automatic medical systems, advanced sensor systems, rebreather system, HUD with night, thermal, and active illumination, an integrated jumpjet pack, strength enhancement and a Class 0 EVA._

_There isn't much difference between ZoneTrooper, Raider and ICS systems in terms of internal features allowing up to 75% parts commonality between the three systems, the main differences between the systems is simply the weight of the armor and the amount of protection and enhancement they possess._

_The Integrated Combat Suit, while less armored and lacking the ability to carry super heavy weaponry (like the Rheinmetall MK72A3 Railgun on the Zone Trooper Mk3 prototype armour) as compared to the the much heavier Zone Trooper and Raider armor, is much lighter and faster. This can be seen in the ICS's ability to run at sustained speed of 25 miles per hour and use its integral jump jets to jump higher than the other two suits. _


	4. Chapter 4

**Sorry for the wait. **

Tiberium - The Fires of Terra Chapter 4

Date: AD 2070/CE 70, February 17th, 1:34 PM.

G330X Habitual Module III, Temporary Housing cluster "Ulster", Relocation Centre 31, Cosenza City, 37 Km South of Special Joint Zone Border.

It still felt strange to be walking again, Woods thought, walking down the metallic corridor as the soft 'patter' of footsteps intermingled with the deeper 'thump' of power-assisted footfalls echoed around him.

A small grin flickered across his face as he considered the powered armor he was wearing, a device that GDI had gave him in lieu of a crutch. Apparently GDI like beating their swords into plowshares, a standard powered armor for example, once properly calibrated could be used for support and physiotherapy for an injured person. Or al least that's what his doctors told him.

The smile died as his mind conjured up, unbidden, a more sinister purpose for the armor; to contain the "inert" Tiberium now flowing through his veins.

He sighed and quickly push that thought out of his conscious mind, taking a moment to look at the people around him. Some like him wore powered armor while others didn't and oddly enough, everywhere he looked he found people staring at those wearing armor with some discomfort. Though he didn't mind the stares of the children , the expressions on some of the adult's faces bothered him for some reason. Even odder, he found the same sneering visage on the faces of a number of powered armor wearer.

Even worse than the glares some people were sending at each other was the sign of Tiberium exposure and other disfigurements that some of the civilians were trying desperately to hide. It pained him to see such sights but- Oh. He stopped and looked at the scene again; sure enough most of the glares were directed at a group who showed the tell-tale signs of Tiberium infection. That's not good, Wood decided as he continued his journey.

Woods was currently heading towards the lounge of what his acquaintances in the GDI called a G330X habitual module. Designed to survive the hostile conditions outside the safety of its walls, the cross-shaped module consist of two major hallways running down both axis of the cross. Lining each of these hallways were rooms; each capable of housing a family of six and in the center where the hallways meet was the main lounge, medical wing and cafeteria.

In all, the entire building houses 288 refugees in its two story structure and protected them from the elements with thick T- armor, apparently up to a quarter metre thick in some places. Surprisingly enough, according to a colleague in the EBN who had interviewed him on the crash, GDI had managed to erect hundreds of such modules all over southern Italy within a week of the event. The sheer scale of such an undertaking boggles his mind.

Personally though, the most surprising feature to him was the Module's integrated Artificial Intelligence. According to the information he had seen on GDI's internet, the majority of GDI military and civilians installations and equipment require integrated AI support to aid in management as well as to compensate for the interference caused by environment of their Earth.

And he had to admit; EVA as the AI was called, does its job remarkably well, performing the security, logistical and planning aspect of management almost flawlessly while ensuring that orders and information was conveyed clearly. Though he had to suppress a snicker as he remembered an incident back at Mobius base where someone altered the vocal synthesizer of the AI such that it replied to civilians with the voice of a schoolgirl on a sugar high.

Still snickering, he staggered to a nearby wall as he felt a moment of weakness wash over him. Thankfully the armor ensured that he didn't trip or fall as he finally entered the common room on the ground floor of the module. While it was filled with people, it didn't take long for him to cross the room as the crowd parted when they took note of the giant 'Press' on his white powered armor.

Strolling across the room, Woods ignored the looks that some people were giving him. At first he didn't think much of it, confident that GDI's security will defuse the situation before it gets too ugly but now that he was in the main lounge, he finally noticed the stares that certain people were sending his way was mix of scorn, hate, and curiosity in their eyes. That didn't surprise him but he could also feel a sense of…fear?.

Shrugging he continued walking towards the pair he was meeting, a sister and a brother in their late teens. He had met the two of them at Mobius station after they were picked up by RAID 2th division from the wreckage of their family car. After he'd been released from Mobius Station and transferred to one of the tent city that GDI had set up, he figured that he would check up on them.

Granted using the term 'tent city' was rather far from the mark given that the so called "tent cities" consisted of G330 modules, field hospitals, airfields, motor pools, and a military outpost where GDI and Eurasian Federation forces were stationed.

"Hey, I'm John Woods" Woods introduced himself, reaching out to tap the girl on the shoulder. "We met a few days ago at Mobius Station, do you remember?"

"Yeah, it's nice to see you again." the girl, Cecilia Damiani if Woods remembered correctly, replied rather nervously.

Chuckling Woods moved to reassure her.

"Don't mind the armor, it's a pain to take off and I need it to walk. So how've you and Eusebio been doing?"

"Ok, we're mostly just watching the news and keeping up with what's happening in the rest of the world."

"So what do you think? And what's with the death stares people here are sending each other?"

"You've been exposed to the green cristallo signore" Cecilia said in a dull voice as memories of the wreck that killed her family filled her mind. "Sorry" she added a moment later.

"Don't be, I was on a helicopter when the event happen. I survived. The 'copter and the others didn't." Woods said his tone tired and resigned.

"I'm sorry for your loss," Woods heard her say in sympathy.

"Thank"

He took a moment to look around the room before turning back to find Cecilia scanning him in concern.

"Shouldn't you still be in the hospital?" She asked. "I mean you looked pretty bad when Euse and I met you..."

"No need to worry, I'm doing fine. This suit is keeping me standing," Woods laughed. "Beside if I survived when a helicopter didn't, it means I am tougher than a 'copter right?"

Cecilia crack a smile at the interplay, relaxing a bit and becoming comfortable.

"So, you seem pretty broody... Care to talk about what's on your mind?" Woods asked, his tone now serious. The change in the reporter's tone surprised Cecilia but she didn't mind much.

"When the event happened we waited, expecting the government or the military to show up but no one did. We tried radio, the internet, satcoms- none of it worked. At first we didn't mind so much since we had food and everything for a week or so but then we saw the tornados forming on the other side of the town. From there it was pretty obvious that we needed to get to the city and its bunkers and it seemed pretty simple. It was only half a mile away."

Cecilia paused for a moment, her voice wavering from the memories. "We wasn't the only ones on the highways, there were others. Once we entered the city boundaries we thought we were safe but we were wrong" Cecilia paused for a moment taking a slip of water in an attempt to calm her voice. "It started with the widows, I think it was hail, smashing against them. Then the windows broke and then the entire car just flipped over."

"It was painful" Cecilia sobbed, "the wind was so strong, it was sending spikes of that crystals through the car. I think Pa threw himself over us when that happened but then there was blood everywhere."

Woods reached over to awkwardly pet her shoulder as the girl sobbed into her palms.

"At least Eusebio is still alive" She continued sadly, reminded her of her brother, who was barely as lucky. The green crystal had mutilated her brother far worse than her. Where she "just" ended up with scars over parts of her face and skin, and a pair of heterochromatic eyes, he ended up with a deformed body. It was the reason why he wasn't here, Cecilia raged as she looked sideways to the rest of the room.

Assholes.

Cecilia was about to continue when they were interrupted by the form of her brother descending the stairs, she could tell by the sound his footstep; each sounding like a footfall of a giant, sending a booming echo through the metal structure of the lounge. The reaction was mixed; a few people moved out of the way to make space, some left the room in fear, while others other stayed put, paying it no mind. These who moved out of fear annoyed her, he was only human dammit.

Her brother had always been big. In the years before the event, he played Rugby, he wasn't major league material or a well-known player but he was earning money and saving it during the season while working and training on the off season. But now, whatever method GDI used to save his life cursed him with a hulking body with curved plates of that cursed crystal sticking out of his skin like some demented armor.

"Hey Cecilia" he said in his deep voice, giving Woods a nod, "We should leave. Now."

Even as he finished that sentence, a trio of trouble makers made their way down the stairs which he had just used.

"Shit" Cecilia whispered, "Blue cosmos wannabes. Assholes"

Woods saw the problem immediately and it didn't surprise him; the moment he'd recovered enough to stay awake, he'd asked for something to read to keep him busy, anything to keep his mind off the crash and GDI had provided in spades, up to and including bringing up that jarhead Bruce Lipton from the political department when he had visited Mobius station. Hence he got up and made to stand between the three and the Damiani siblings.

"Is there a problem?" Woods asked, stepping in front of Eusebio.

"Hiding behind the press?" the leader of the group sneered

"I would ask again since you appear to be deaf, is there a problem?" Woods repeated, his tone dead even.

"Why don't you get the fuck outta my way" the man said disgust manifest in his voice as he took a moment to study the patchwork like skin on Woods' face.

"Oh? It is a crime to be a survivor of a deadly accident now is it?" Woods mocked, "If so then perhaps you should start with you friend over there?"

The leader took a step into Woods' face, his eyes narrowing.

"Yeah, I see a problem," the man growled "you think you're tough, wiseass?"

"If you have a problem why don't you go stand outside without the power armors the UN gave everyone?" Woods asked the asshole and saw the man's eye quiver momentarily with fear at the mentioning of going outside without protection.

The man didn't have a chance to answer as GDI military police entered the lounge slipping through the crowd which had gathered around Woods and the Blue Cosmos sympathiser. While it didn't take long for them to spot the cause of the commotion, they didn't rush in directly since they too thought the problem was solved judging by the posture of the two group.

"Good, I think we've solved the problem here," Woods said turning around only to receive a punch to the head that almost sent him stumbling... Which his armor compensated for almost instantly.

"Sonofabitch!"

Acting on instincts from a self defence class long ago, Woods duck low and twisted, sending a roundhouse kick into the chest of his opponent. Unfortunately for his attacker, his armor boosted his strength and turned what would be a weak blow into a devastating kick which sent the attacker crashing backwards in pain into the arms of his unwary henchman. It was only then that the MPs jumped into action and rushed the scene.

While one of the MPs checked on Woods, the other rushed in and urgently pushed the two henchman aside to check on the wounded man. And the MP was right in doing so, the man's ribs was broken and he needed immediate medical attention.

"Get that Stretcher and help me move this dumb moron to the medical bay" the MP hissed to the man's two friends while spraying the man's chest with an pain "God dammit is he trying to earn a Darwin Award or something, punching a guy in power armor..."

The men shook themselves free of the sound of breaking bones and finally got to help, carrying the man carefully out of the room.

"Bloody dumb arsehole" the MP said who remained with Woods, "ya alrigh mate?"

"I'm fine" Woods said "the hit just surprised me that's all."

"You shouldn't be moving around, you really should be in bed" the MP said reading Woods' medical report from his EVA

"Right…" Woods answered sarcastically as he was helped to the nearest desk by the Damiani siblings. "And I guess your next line is 'you are lucky to be alive'?"

"You're lucky to be alive" the MP deadpanned as he backed off to check on the surrounding and the two civilians who were with the reporter, it was pretty obvious to the MP what the problem was. The MP sighed; another bloody mutant problem

"I'm assuming that those dumbarse blokes started it?" the MP said as he retracted his helmet, revealing an aged face with a pair of hard brown eyes slowly scanning the room. Finding most of the occupants slowly returning to their own business he snapped around, finding and noting a few stragglers who moved further away from them or left the room altogether.

"Yes" Woods answered for all three of them. "That sound right."

"Not surprising," the MP answered "bloody discriminatory buggers."

"You're from the Union?" Cecilia asked without thinking having finally recognized the accent. However she was confused when the MP just stared back at her equally confused.

"She means are you from Australia?" Woods said rewording the girl question.

"Huh? Yeah, I am, used to be based in Sydney with the military before I transferred to UPMP," the MP replied, "Right sorry, name's Ian," he continued holding his hand to Woods.

"I'm John Woods, this here is Cecilia Damiani and her brother."

"Good to meet you'll." Ian answered with a sardonic smile on his lips.

"Is this normal?" Cecelia whispered " I mean do most people hate...?"

"No but from what I heard of your world, I'm assuming that this is normal on your end with the coordinators and what-nots?"

"Yes" Cecilia whispered while her brother moved closer to her protectively.

Ian sighed before speaking "when you lived on a death world and through the six years of hell, mutants are a normal sight to see."

"Normal?" Woods asked.

The MP looked at the three people in front of him and sighed. "Yes, normal, though it's not much as a problem today what with the majority of the population in the solar system having some mutants somewhere in their family tree." Ian replied before correcting himself "I mean, back in our solar system. Reality. Whatever."

"Beside, while there are benefits to being a mutant, the availability of power armor kind of renders it pointless," he grunted as he continued to watch the room for any signs of trouble.

" . Ha." the brother repeated bitterly.

"Sorry, I didn't caught your name?" Ian asked

"Eusebio".

"Nice to meet you too kiddo. Look, you're never going to escape reality." Ian said drawing from experience, "Trusts me, it'll take awhile for everyone to get acclimated to the situation and even then there is always going to be these who dislike mutants." Ian said bluntly, "Besides if you've been with the military as long as I have, mutants are normal sight to see."

As everyone digest the statement in silence, man continued. "If you really want to avoid all this, signing up or moving may get you out of this" Ian said, waving his arms at the rest of the lounge.

"It sounds almost like mutants are welcome in the military" Woods asked seeing that he wasn't the only one engrossed in the MP's words.

"Ha, I was a Zone Trooper during the war, lost friends and comrades those F-turds Nod, the bloody Scrin when they showed up and to Tib when their armor was penetrated during combat. A lot of my buddies ended up as mutants, those who survived anyways," Ian said gloomily, reminiscing in the memories before continuing coldly "Look. listen to me, I've seen combat, don't sign up for the military. If you do you'll probably lose everything. It's only a matter of time before Nod starts another war."

"Nod?" Cecilia asked, recognizing the word from the news.

"Wherever Tiberium is those son of bitches are bound to be," Ian said his face twisted in anger, and without further explanation. It was clear enough that the MP didn't want to speak further on the subject.

"Thanks" Cecilia said to Woods as Ian took a moment to check with his partner via his suit's EVA unit.

Finishing Ian turned back towards the group, "Now, where are your parents... according to the files we have...ah…shit…sorry for your loss." Ian said biting his lips before continued, "Do you have any relatives?". A twin shaking of heads had him sigh in sympathy.

"Shit…well I'm with the 460th Military Police Division and I'll be here for the foreseeable future so if you two need anything just let me know. God know how I'd feel if I found my family dead back when Sydney got nuked. "

"Thank you," Cecilia said as Ian got ready to leave.

"It's my pleasure" Ian answered, however as he made to leave, Woods stopped him.

"Do you mind if I interview you for a possible story in the future?" Woods asked the man, having caught the offhand mention of Sydney being Nuked.

"Maybe" Ian grunted as he left the group, heading over to his partner in the medical bay of the module. Satisfied, Woods turned back to the siblings.

"Do you mind, if we continue elsewhere?" Cecilia asked.

"Not a problem," Woods answered as he followed the two out of the lounge and up the stairs to their room.

00

The CIO agent sat on a train making plans as it sped towards the next switchover before his destination. It was going to be tough acting against an unknown opponent, then again, the agent was almost certain that he wasn't the only spy heading towards southern Italy.

00

President Richard Monroe sat in his office with his inner cabinet, the ones whom he trusted to be free of excessive outside influence: his Secretary of State Kevin Rhudd, the Secretary of Defense Mark Hunam, and James T. Robinson, the representative to the Alliance Council. Those were the people he trusted the most but that trust was itself was but a lie for they were all politicians. Trust between them went only as far as one could throw the other. Still, they were united by the simple fact was that there was one single topic on the public's mind: the Economy.

And the cause of that problem? PLANT. They and the rest of the colonies were meant to be the link between the Earth and the rest of the solar system. It was meant to be humanity's next step to the stars, at least according to the old UN plans in the history books, but all that was long forgotten and rendered worthless by the simple existence of coordinators.

It was utter bullshit brought about by human stupidity.

Earth needed control of PLANT, mainly because that was where the majority of the infrastructure and investments for Earth's flourishing space economy was. Resources were already tight on Earth, the colonies under their control just wasn't enough to provide enough resource for the whole damn planet.

That was why he'd signed the treaty that created the Earth Alliance and declared war on the PLANTs after they cut all trade with Earth after the bombing on the Moon, to do anything else would almost certainly end in the Atlantic Federation being crippled by lack of resources. As it is, the early seizure of the Earth-Moon transit route and the remaining PLANTs under their control provided just enough resources for Earth industries to survive.

He should have never ran for president, Monroe decided. He'd entered the running driven by the desire to bring the Atlantic Federation back to its days of glory and to end the problems between normals and coordinators peacefully and all he had to show for it are years of frustration and deadlock.

"Mark?" Monroe looked at the man, waiting for him to share everything they had on this newest problem on the international stage. "Talk to me."

"We need GDI tech, especially their surface to space technology," Mark said stressed and tired from the day's work. "But there is a far more serious problem, I've had my people looking through GDI's historical records and it's not good. As far as Tiberium is concerned, it is as dangerous as our friends across the Atlantic and GDI says it is, the effects are too detailed for the records to be faked " Mark continued, skimming through the documents before him. "The bottom line is this; If the UN and the EF fails in containment then we are looking at a century max, maybe one or two decade more before Tiberium overrun the world. Granted, that estimate is based on the UN fighting Tiberium alone..."

Grim faces greeted that statement.

"Back to GDI, they are no longer under UN control. As of their 2040s, they effectively formed their own government built on the ideals and charter of the UN. I've looked through their version of the UN charters and while there are minor differences, for intents and purposes they're identical to our'. The charter GDI created in 2040 is pretty much the same document, modified with the inclusion of elements for a functional world government."

"So they are a military junta who took power in a Coup d'etat?" Kevin asked, his opinion about that titbit evident in his tone.

Mark paused, thinking, "Well I suppose if you put it that way... no, a Coup d'etat would imply there was resistance from the original government. They became the government after each member nation of the UN was reduced economically until they collapsed from the strain of maintaining their economy in the hostile conditions of their world. Also, after the period of transition, GDI then went out of their way to create a civilian administration which was why Supreme commander McNeil also called herself the 'acting director'. "

"But enough of that, we have a larger problem. I've had my people looking through the other parts of the historical records GDI provided and I don't like what I see." Mark sighed heavily "There are two related things we should really be worried about, the first is WMD and the second is GDI itself."

"Weapon of Mass Destruction?" Kevin repeated, his voice filled with dread.

"They don't seem to have any problems at all with using WMDs, the historical files refer to the Brotherhood of Nod using nuclear weapons and GDI using something called O.D.I.N in their wars. Both were used by Battalion level formations." Mark paused, seeing Kevin's enquiring look. "A battalion is about 300 to 1200 troops. We are assuming that was a legacy of their world war two, where WMDs were thrown around like candy."

"So don't piss them off," James stated, his tone low and controlled in contrast to his pale face.

"Yes, sir"

"That's complete and utter bullshit, no one…" Kevin began but was cut off.

"I would have thought that you would had read the damn files by now Kevin," Mark said annoyed, knowing full well that a copy had been delivered each individual in the meeting.

"Look- I just got back from Pretoria, you know full well what OMNI and the CIA think of our South African 'Allies'."

"Ah... I see. Anyway the second concern is the fact that GDI is in effect a planetary and arguably a solar system wide government, so they will be use to acting accordingly. They have already notified each of the governments which control a mass driver to coordinate all travel with them in order to prevent any accidents…"

Kevin's eyes narrowed, "Where the hell? Why is the UN ordering us around? Don't we already have an agency for that?"

"…and I've passed the information to OMNI in Alaska. I don't know what the other members of the Alliance are doing but my department feels that this is the right thing to be doing. We don't want any accidents to happen especially right now." Mark sighed, "And Kevin, our orbital space tracking facilities are already stretched to the limit trying to cover ZAFT movement, trying to add another bunch of Unknown is probably going to break the Net."

"Kevin does have a point, though" Monroe pointed out looking at his secretary of defense.

"Sadly GDI does have an advantage over us in that area; AI." Mark said.

"AI as in Artificial intelligence? The kind DSSD has been working on?" James asked, his eyes filled with fascination at this development.

"Yes, I just got word a day ago from contacts from across the Atlantic, it's in the report," Mark said waving the report. "Didn't any of you read it?"

The blank stares that he got was answer enough. Mark covered his face with his palms to sooth his growing headache.

"Ug... Why do I even bother to write those things..,"

"Sorry, we didn't have the time," Monroe apologised..

"Arg, Why do I even bother... Anyway, GDI's use of AI ensures that they can do a far better job of managing all space travel in and around the Earth then we can. In addition they had already announced their intentions of restarting their other space projects and that, Mr President, is an area that we effectively can't match at the moment," Mark explained.

Monroe silently dammed the stupidity of the past few decades before asking "What about tech?"

"We don't have any details beside what we've observed although there is a troubling development, our scientist wasn't sure what it is but we've been detected roughly 230 intermittent but very high output energy signatures in orbit .We still don't know what is causing them at the moment but we'll keep an eye on it. Its most likely some sort of GDI long range communication spillover given that they seems to originate from empty space within clusters of GDI satellites.

However there something else not covered in the report that really worries me."

"It's the weapons used in their world war two, they tried to scrub it from their historical records but... from what my department had pieced together, they were using strategic teleporters…" at that point Kevin almost coughed out his drink in shock and he wasn't the only one, the rest of the people in the room stared back in disbelief "…jammers, plasma weapons, advanced bio weapons, optical cloaking tech, GPS, ICBM class nuclear weapons, primitive cybernetics, some sort of anti-armor electric weapon and energy shields. In their 1950s"

Everyone was left speechless.

"What the hell happened?" Monroe said finally as everyone tried to find an explanation for that piece of insanity.

"We don't know" Mark said closing the files in front of him equally confused.

"Well. Crap. Do they still have any of that advanced technology?!" Kevin asked, morbidly curious.

"We don't know for certain, but we think they might still have the teleporters and are using it as a FTL drive given McNeil's comments about re-colonising the nearby systems." was Mark's answer.

"Well at least it proves we don't need the bloody coordinators to reach the stars and we can kill them all." Kevin murmured softly.

"We can't kill them all, Kevin," James said leaning forward in his chair "I know that you hate coordinators for killing your son and daughter in law at the bombing but it still doesn't change the facts, coordinators are simply stronger, faster, and smarter than we are. Besides that's genocide... If we try to kill them all, what there to stop them from killing us right back?"

The president's eyes narrowed as he looked at his Secretary of State with mixed feeling before shaking his head sadly.

"So in other words they had a head start on us, so it's a good idea to stay friendly with GDI since they have no problems with using military forces backed by WMDs to deal with threats to humanity or them and they have tech we need, correct?" Monroe asked his secretary of defense.

"Yes," Mark answered before pausing to take a breath and leaned back in his chair to relax, in doing releasing a deep and long breath of relief. Meanwhile each person within the room took the time to digest everything that had been said, trying to imagine what possible events could lead to a world war where technology that, by rights, belonged to a far more advanced world was being thrown around by each and every side. It was simply impossible to even imagine it had been possible at all and yet it all lead to the same question; Was it true or was it just a load of bullshit? From there everybody's minds took different paths but their thoughts was best expressed by Kevin.

"WTF is this...It's…insane," Kevin muttered in disbelief.

"Then we'll follow the EF's lead and play nice with the UN, we'll also send someone to the conference in the pacific in May, but what about this Tiberium? It's an energy source right…." The president began only to be cut off by James. "I would advise against it, Mr. President, remember from the historical files GDI released, it does have great potential but if we ever lose containment... it would be foolish to even try. It's best we don't touch it."

"Then what are we doing to do? We'll technologically screwed by PLANT and GDI, our only hope is the G-Project which is still in development," Monroe said, his eyebrows knitted together in thought.

"We need time, that's what we need, time. This war starting this soon just doesn't work to our advantage," Kelvin said thoughtfully. "We need the time to get our superior weapons online to crush the PLANTS."

"If playing nice with GDI will get us that time we need to complete the G-Project, that works for me. James, Mark, I want the project completed, tested and the technology deployed to the rest of our forces as soon as possible but don't cut too many corners. Still, remember we need it as soon as possible." the president ordered.

"Yes Mr. President" Mark answered with a nod, making notes on his notepad.

"Sir, do we still want to go ahead with the attack on South American?" Kevin asked

"No," was the answer, "we can't afford it with the upcoming conferences."

"Is there anything else?" no one said anything. "Good then, thank you for your time, and please have a good night," the president said with a tired smile as each member stood to leave.

00

Azrael, right now, was not a happy person. One could say he was the antithesis of happy at the moment. Nothing was going as planned, the planned attack on PLANT was effectively over, with the Eurasian Federation's decision to withdraw their forces from the Alliance and now, with the new announcement which could be seen on the TV screen in front of him...

"…only hours ago the Alliance Council announced that the Earth Forces will not be taking any hostile actions against PLANT for the foreseeable future…."

And then there were the other reasons for his anger; GDI and their attitude was wrong! Did they not understand? They were no different from the UN, they just didn't understand. Coordinators are an abomination to nature and they must be burnt from existence and swept into the bins of history.

Blue Cosmos will not fail their appointed task, Azreal raged, he must save mankind from the coordinator plague and he will not let the UN get in his way again. They will be crushed underneath the might of the naturals if they tried to stop him.

Azrael's eyes fell back on the TV screen for a moment, "….this move is surprising and certainly unexpected considering that the Moon bombing is still flesh in the public min…" the reporter on the screen droned on.

This changed nothing, already his plans were in motion and soon the pieces will be in place soon.

As for the mutants created by Tiberium that had been reported in Southern Italy, he'd already taken action and started Blue Cosmos' own research project into the alien crystal, now all they needed were samples which should be easy to get their hands on. Though it'll take a while, Azrael fumed, pacing around his office.

No one disobeys him, he will find out who was responsible for this and they will learn their lesson, Azrael though, a growing murderous smile appearing on his lips.

00

McNeil lay back in her seat in her office in orbit, utterly tied. She knew that she was pushing it, burning through GDI resources that were earmarked for use in case of war against the Scrin but it was worth it. Using those resource to aid the Federation was a gamble that she was willing to make for the safety of the planet not to mention the countless lives that GDI have saved in the past two weeks alone. It was as she told the press, this is the best chance GDI had to remove Tiberium completely from Earth and she was going to give it her best shot.

And like everything else in life, McNeil thought sadly, looking at the picture of her desk where a picture of her former unit, the the 44th Armored division, third Battalion, rested, this too has a price.

GDI paid that price with blood whenever it was necessary to safeguard humanity and she too paid the price. This act of god was no different, leaving them in a reality where humanity was divided and on the edge of war, with the bloody tower right in the middle of the red zone.

McNeil tensed for a moment but it was enough to crush the pen with her grip. At least their Earth was safe now, with the only danger being an attack from an extrasolar source and it was going to take the Scrin millennia to get to Earth in Sublight.

If that was the price for her humanity to be safe, McNeil thought, leaving them in a reality where humanity was divided and looking for ways to genocide each other, then she and the rest of the GDI was willing to pay a thousand times over.

However such thoughts paled in comparison to the fear, the -unknown-, she felt growing within her, the simple knowledge that humanity existed in this reality and all that it implies.

Thankfully, the various GDI War Plans were still largely practical due to the sheer amount of assets that come through with them and that she was thankful for.

However with the situation on this Earth added more complications to the War Plans, forcing them to adapt to these new factors or die. Never before had she been so thankful for the speed and efficiency of EVA.

McNeil breathed deeply, thinking of that particular hidden secret from the public. The secret in question was a single transmission recovered by a Inops spy within Nod, and it was the reason for Project Endurance, the establishment of the GDIN(S) and the slow buildup of the rest of the military ever since.

She took a deep breath, her eyes returned to the picture of the and she slowly raised her hands until they were within her sight. There she could see the unnatural smoothness of her skin covering her artificial carbon nanotube muscle and synthetic phased Cobalt alloy bones: a memento of an encounter with a buzzer swarm, a legacy of the Third Tiberium War.

"EVA statu-"

"Affirmative, Supreme Commander McNeil. Priority transmissions from Mobius Station indicates that the Tower had been emitting tremors on an irregular interval for the last two days. Mobius isn't sure of the cause but…"

"EVA, alert the fleet and RAID. I want RAID to find the cause, hold the Seventh flotilla in reserve and put the Orbital network into standby mode," McNeil ordered.

"Affirmative"

"Thank you, EVA, What would I do without you." McNeil replied ,thanking the AI who didn't answer back. It was another benefit to GDI increasingly heavy use of AI, it allowed them to simplify the chain of command. Though with the fear of history repeating itself, precautions and contingencies had been taken to ensure EVA is completely loyal and safe.

Focusing her mind for a moment, she moved on to the next problem; GDI has its own problems such as the issue of the economy, which should be solved with the restarting of GDI space industry. However with the very real possibility of the removal of Tiberium from Earth, it meant a possibility of a change in the economy model to something they have only historic records to rely on, the last of the conventional economies collapsed in the 40s with the rest of the nation states. To her, it highlighted one of the things she feared, and yet, envied most; a world without Tiberium, a world she didn't know anything about, a world she'd only read about.

McNeil shook her head; there was no point worrying about a future she can't control.

Sighing, she stood up and turned towards the cabinet where she kept her pricey self-made potato derived alcohol which she liked to claim was vodka, not exactly the best shit to be drinking but alcohol was alcohol. Despite all the energy and material goods that can be obtained from Tiberium, the fact of the matter was they still had to eat. Food was the one thing they still had to grow, and it was the reason why the UN credit was implemented by the Board of Directors all those years ago.

Food was one of the few items that were still a scarcity in the post-Tiberium war period, although with the reclamation of Yellow Zones in Australia and North America it wasn't that much of an issue. However with the event that displaced them in this reality that was soon going to become a problem. While the orbiting Agriculture Stations and the secret farms within the depth of the city-fortresses was designed to grow enough food to feed the remaining world population, it wasn't enough to feed GDI's current population, especially with the amount of aid being provided to Italy.

McNeil poured herself a drink and slumped back onto her chair. GDI needed its space programs up and running as soon as possible so that they can get humanity out of the solar system. It was a gut feeling, something big was about to happen and it was her job to ensure the survival of GDI and Humanity.

GDI's current War Plans was something High Command and former Supreme Commander Granger developed before he retired and they were still in use today. Although Nod was the wild card considering how they oscillated between an organized movement to scattered fragments between each Tiberium war.

Hell, there was no way that GDI could have foreseen Kane's return in the second and third Tiberium wars so it made sense to prepare, even if she, personally, was pretty sure that Kane was dead. Nothing could have survived the detonation of the Liquid Tiberium under Temple Prime after all.

The Scrin were more a predictable foe so planning for them was easier. They were the reason why GDI had three primary War Plans; plan Red, plan Blue, and plan Purple. Red assumed an extrasolar invasion but since the Scrin forces didn't display use of FTL drives and with STL only a Scrin invasion wasn't considered likely for the foreseeable future. Purple was the unlikely situation of a combined extrasolar and threshold tower invasion. Blue however was the one considered by her and the rest of High Command the most likely and the one they feared most: A full scale invasion through the tower which they now knew was a wrap gate.

It was the reason why G-Lab, Futuretech, Steel Talon, and every organization that developed weapons for GDI military-industrial complex were kicking their gears into overdrive ever since project Endurance started.

She was thankful for a small mercy at least; the majority of the civilian population of Earth had been moved onto the orbital habitats or the colonies on the Moon and the wider solar system or had left on one of the colony fleets. That means that the forces that come through with her wasn't needed much in her home realty.

And besides, Earth still had the Third, Fifth, Eighth and Tenth fleets to call upon, more if they decided to recall the colonization fleets although that action itself was going to take a few years with sublight drives. .

They were safe there but this reality was a different story, McNeil thought as the sense of doom returned. She only hoped that they aren't going to need to use any of GDI's military might but with the sense of foreboding she was feeling, she had a feeling that she was likely to be forced to do so in the future.

Trade with the other nations here will do good for moral and lessen tensions, McNeil decided, drowning her drink and forcing her mind to think about something else. She then turned to leave for her next meeting when she stopped.

"EVA, has Operation Overwatch began?" McNeil asked, shrugging on her dress jacket.

"Inops agents have entered the SJZ and have began monitoring all communications originating from within," EVA answered, "In addition constellation 3 have been retasked to cover the Italian theater of operations."

"Thank you, EVA" McNeil said, locking down her computer, She had to admit, this reality was certainly capable, case in point being the colonies in the Lagrangian five, every single one of which was 30 km long. Certainly an achievement to be proud of, McNeil thought, leaving the room.

She sorely hoped that she wouldn't be required to smash them with the hammer of GDI's military.

00

Date: AD 2070/CE 70 February 18th, 1:00 AM.

Special Joint Zone, main highway A3 towards Cosenza City, GDI-EDF military convey.

The OMNI agent watched as the vehicle transporting her and the rest of the 111th and 124th Guard Divisions drove towards the fort where they will be stationed alongside GDI forces in the Special Joint Zone. Of course, it wasn't just the military who were coming along, the government was also sending in scientists and researchers, though the rumors going around camp says that most of the scientific expeditions were halted after some scientist got himself killed. Right now the military's job was to get in there and put on a friendly face to the public and the media, who no doubt were already there or not far behind.

The two divisions should have rolled into the SJZ the moment they arrived in the morning from France but orders were orders. They were to meet up with GDI 11th Motor Rifle Division at a place called Sala Consiline to be refitted with new equipment. And that she was thankful for, because the agent had (unlike some) read the briefing material provided and by god it put the fear of god into her. A alien crystal killing people in 60 seconds? Mutating the survivors? Tiberium Suppressors? What was this shit?!

She didn't have to look any further than outside the window of the APC to see the overcast, purple sky and the glowing green crystals that she was seeing here and there. It was insane and it felt like she was on another planet and with the powered armor, the UN from another reality, and the APC she and the rest of the 111th and 124th Guard Division was been transported in...Unreal, the agent finished, falling silent in the face of the magnificent yet desolate landscape.

She had understood the troopers' concern but the simple truth was that this was the home field of the UN, not theirs, they should be the ones listening to the GDI forces. She didn't have a good feeling about this, she thought, returning to the document provided by the UN. She couldn't believe half the medical details she was reading about in the document, it was insane and yet it is all completely feasible, the details of each knock on effect were accurate to the best of her knowledge.

She didn't know whether to be amazed or frightened at the implications. She had graduated from medical school and while the effects listed before her was unlike anything she'd ever seen or heard of before, the possibilities are... overwhelming. Though to be fair, it had been years since she'd picked up anything resembling a medical textbook.

She was attached to the 111th as a medic for her platoon; her job was to take care of the men and prevent them from coming to harm and here she was, plotting against her better judgement to smuggle a sample of that deadly green crap back home for study. That may take awhile to plan out because after passing through everything, like the massive wall GDI was building and all the military hardware she'd seen thus far, she didn't like her chances of success. At all. But orders were orders and her loyalty was to her country first and herself second.

She had a job to do.

00

Hub 8923, Cycle 474,342.

Sector 1123A, System 212KS-H

'UNKNOWN WARP GATE STATUS ACTIVE'

'COMMENCE PHASE 1'

'RECONNAISSANCE'

TRANSFER COMPLETED…hub 8923 transferred under Traveler - 59 authority as per Overlord command…

…new directive received…

…threshold unlocked and charging…47%

WARNING…Unknown AI detected… AI hostile…

…enacting countermeasures… Probability of mission completion 98%

…countermeasures fail…threshold charge... 72%

…initiating new countermeasures….

…new countermeasures fail… Probability of mission completion 12%

...ABORT SIGNAL SENT...

ALERT!…wrap gate locked…

…hostile AI responsible...

...scanning AI... querying Database...

...abnormal readings detected from AI...

…re-engaging hostile...

00

**_Newpedia: United Nations Space Colonization Program_**

_The United Nations Space Colonization (UNSC) Program was launched on CE 9 (2009 AD) only five months after the end of the Reconstruction Wars. The program was supported by the newly established superpowers as each of the new nation saw the advantage of the development of space and the possible riches awaiting exploitation, especially since the cornerstones of the old economy were no more._

_The UNSC Program began with the accelerated construction of the new international space station (ISS) Yggdrasil at the Earth–Moon Lagrange 1 (L1 ) point. The location was chosen due to it ideal location between the Moon and Earth, allowing it to monitor and coordinate communications among various missions on the nearside of the Moon ._

_The new international space station was also located in an ideal location for observations and close study of the Sun. The UNSC Program also designed the station to be not only a research and communication station but also an stopover point for all movement between Earth and the Moon. As such it played an important role in the development and construction of Copernicus City and eventually the Production Location Ally on Nexus Technology or PLANT. These massive 30 km hourglass shaped habitats were designed by George Glen and were meant to be the centerpiece of the new space economy, with the ISS acting as the center-point between the colonies and Earth._

_The new PLANT's were built at Lagrange five due…_

**_Inops archive-_**

_EVA online. Welcome back commander_  
_Search: Project Endurance_  
_Classification level: Black... Please enter password_  
_*******_  
_Password accepted._

_Beginning playback._

_Commander... Or should I call you general now? Good to see you anyway._  
_Now I am sure you are wondering why you are here or about the new buildup of millitary forces..._

_*Sigh*_

_Commander, What I am abou to tell you is... highly classified information._

_In 2047, just hours before you won your victory at ground zero, a Scrin Mothership class vessel evacuated Earth through threshold 19. As it did so Inops intercepted an alien transmission from the tower._

_Two week ago, with the aid of some intel from an agent in Nod, we've successfully decripted the message._

_I am not going to mince words commander, the message is basically the head honcho of the Scrin ordering a full scale invasion against Earth and you know as well as i do that we almost got our ass handed to us by **a mining security team.**_

_Data from Nod suggests that they had already tried to access the Tower and got blocked by Kane's pet AI but we don't know how long that would last._

_In responce to this threat, the Board of Directors have chosen to activate Project Endurance; the plan for the ultimate survival of the human race._

_And this is where you come in commander, I want you to lead this project. I want you to put together a team of the best and brightest, to learn more about our enemy, to expend our capibilities. I want you to reforge GDI into a shield capible of withstending the Scrin onslaught._

_Now I know this is a lot to ask of you and our chances of pulling this off is low but..._

_You're the best we got Commander._

_Do your best commander. That's all I can ask._

_For the sake of our childrens and for the sake of this Blue and beatiful world._

_Granger out._

_Playback ended_

_Files updates received:_  
_**Decoded Alien Transmission** [Classified: SIREN CALL]_

_**Nod Intellignece file #2210A** [Classified: HARBINGER]_

_**Analysis of Alien Tower** [Classified: STAR GATE]_

_**Project CASTLE **[Classification level: Black]_

_**Project ARK **[Classification level: Black]_

_**Operation Plan Akula **[Classified: RED OCTOBER]_

_**Project Missouri **[Classified: The Big Red One]_

_**Project Yamato **[Classified: ADMIRALTY CODE]_

_**Lightweight Civilian/Combat Suit (LCS) - 10/12**_  
_**GDI Engineer Combat Primer 2064 Edition– Standard Civilian Protection**_

_In using the LCS there are few cardinal rules should be kept in mind at all times_

_1) These suits are not GDI Standard Infantry Integrated Combat Suit. _  
_These LCSs are weaker, slower and less armored with a strength enhancement factor of only 20 kg above the total weight of the armor. So no, you are not a near invincible Juggernaut like the Zone Troopers._

_2) Check the model you are wearing! _  
_Though superficially similar, LCS 10 is the military version with a HUD with Night, Thermal and Starlight vision, NBCT protection, automatic medical system and a hard point system in addition the rebreather system and EVA unit. All the civilian LCS 12 have is Tiberium protection, the rebreather and a Class -0 EVA._

_3) In case of emergency, check the shelters. _  
_Ever since UN directive 4932 was issued by Director James Hawk in 2056, all civilian shelters and public installations is required by law to have multiple sets of LCS 12s with spare parts available at all times._  
_As the LCS 12 features 90% parts commonality with your LCS 10, you may appropriate those spares for field repairs in the event that your LCS gets damaged._

**_InOps archive: Medical: Tiberium Suppressors_**

_Tiberium Suppressors (Also known as Tib-S or Anti-Tiberium medication) is the collective name given to a class of Drugs designed to delay, halt or reverse the effects of Tiberium infection. Due to the evolution of Tiberium, only third generation and some second generation Tiberium Suppressors remains effective._

_The first generation of Tiberium Suppressors, known as conventional Suppressors, was developed in the early 2000s. They function in much the same way as conventional radiation sickness treatment, by binding to Tiberium particle in the human body and removing them from the body in urine or in faeces. However this type of medication is rendered obsolete in the 2030s with the evolution of Tiberium to stage 3 as defined by the Mobius Theory. They had since been superseded by second generation Tiberium Suppressors_

_Second Generation Tiberium Suppressors, also known as Sonic suppressors was developed independently by both GDI and the Brotherhood of Nod in the late 2030s. Marking a radical departure from conventional medication, second Generation Tiberium Suppressors instead function as a engineered molecular explosive designed to be absorbed only in very small doses by individual cells. As the cell attempts to metabolize the compound, the compound detonate, producing a sonic shockwave in the resonance frequency of Tiberium crystals. This shatters Tiberium Crystals into small pieces, often below its critical mass. (Stage 3 Tiberium have a critical mass of 117.72 femtogram. Below this threshold, the concentration of exotic particles is too low to stabilize Tiberium, leading to the transmutation of Tiberium to more conventional elements by Beta decay or neutron capture.)_

_Unfortunately such drugs are rendered useless as a front line treatment by the evolution of Tiberium in the aftermath of the Third Tiberium war. However they do remain useful as they retard the formation of large crystals, increasing the effectiveness of Third generation Tiberium Suppressors._

_Third Generation Tiberium Suppressors, also known as Field suppressors, was developed from the containment technology discovered within the Taticus near the end of 2055. At its base, this type of drug consist of a nano-scale particle with small amount of nuclear Isomer (Usually Hafnium 178m2, Zinc 66m or Platinum 186m) contained within a specially designed metallic-ceramic-silicate "shell". Once injected into the body, the Isomer is induced to release its energy which is then converted by the "shell" via an unknown method into a small, short-lived, burst of asymptotically free quarks and gluons. The Quark–gluon plasma, retards nuclear fission and destabilize Stage 4 Tiberium's metastable structure, destroying a large percentage of Tiberium exposed to the Quark–gluon plasma while converting rest back to stage 3 Tiberium, allowing it to be destroyed by Second generation suppressors._

_The development of the Mobius-Chen Fusor and the Harthford process (which allows the easy small scale production of Nuclear Isomers and the metallic-ceramic-silicate "shell" respectively) in 2056 and the subsequent dissemination of these technologies to all settlements, regardless of affiliation by GDI is widely regarded as a major reason for the peace of the last decade._


End file.
